How to listen to music; hints and suggestions to untaught lovers of the art

.x*

J

BOOKS BY HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

How to Listen to Music. Illustrated.

12mo net $1.25

Music and Manners in the Classical

Period. 12mo $1.50

The Pianoforte and Its Music. Illustrated.

[Music Lover's Library.] 12mo. net $1.25

HOW TO LIS'IEN TO MUSIC

HOW TO LISTEN
TO MUSIC

fctvM

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS TO

UNTAUGHT LOVERS

OF THE ART

BY

HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL

Author of "Studies in tbe Wagnerian Drama'' " Notes on the

Cultivation of Choral Music" "Tbe Philharmonic

Society of New York," ttc.

EIGHTEENTH EDITION

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912

MT

COPYRIGHT, 1896. BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

TO

W. J. HENDERSON

WHO HAS HELPED ME TO RESPECT MUSICAL CRITICISM

AUTHOR'S NOTE

THE author is beholden to the Messrs. Harper &
Brothers for permission to use a small portion of the
material in Chapter I., the greater part of Chapter IV.,
and the Plates which were printed originally in one
of tneir publications ; also to the publishers of " The
Looker-On " for the privilege of reprinting a portion
of an essay written for them entitled " Singers, Then
and Now."

CONTENTS

Introduction

Purpose and scope of this book Not written for pro-
fessional musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art
neither for careless seekers after diversion unless they
be willing to accept a higher conception of what ' ' enter-
tainment " means The capacity properly to listen to mu-
sic as a touchstone of musical talent It is rarely found in
popular concert- rooms Travellers who do not see and
listeners who do not hear Music is of all the arts that
which is practised most and thought about least Popular
ignorance of the art caused by the lack of an object for
comparison How simple terms are confounded by lit-
erary men Blunders by Tennyson, Lamb, Coleridge,
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, F. Hopkinson Smith, Bran-
der Matthews, and others A warning against pedants and
rhapsodists Page 3

Recognition of Musical Elements

The dual nature of music Sense-perception, fancy,
and imagination Recognition of Design as Form in its
primary stages The crude materials of music The co-
ordination of tones Rudimentary analysis of Form
Comparison, as in other arts, not possible Recognition
of the fundamental elements Melody, Harmony, and
Rhythm The value of memory The need of an inter-

IX

CHAP.
I.

CHAP.
II.

CHAP.
II.

CHAP.
III.

Contents

mediary Familiar music best liked Interrelation of the
elements Repetition the fundamental principle of Form
Motives, Phrases, and Periods A Creole folk-tune an-
alyzedRepetition at the base of poetic forms Refrain
and Parallelism Key-relationship as a bond of union
Symphonic unity illustrated in examples from Beethoven
The C minor symphony and " Appassionata " sonata
The Concerto in G major The Seventh and Ninth sym-
phonies Page 15

The Content and Kinds of Music

How far it is necessary for the listener to go into musi-
cal philosophy Intelligent hearing not conditioned upon
it Man's individual relationship to the art Musicians
proceed on the theory that feelings are the content of mu-
sic The search for pictures and stories condemned How
composers hear and judge Definitions of the capacity of
music by Wagner, Hauptmann^and Mendelssohn An ut-
terance by Herbert Spencer Music as a language Ab-
solute music and Programme music The content of all
true art works Chamber music Meaning and origin of
the term Haydn the servant of a Prince The charac-
teristics of Chamber music Pure thought, lofty imagina-
tion, and deep learning Its chastity Sympathy between
performers and listeners essential to its enjoyment A
correct definition of Programme music Programme music
defended The value of titles and superscriptions Judg-
ment upon it must, however, go to the music, not the com-
mentary Subjects that are unfit for music Kinds of Pro-
gramme music Imitative music How the music of birds
has been utilized The cuckoo of nature and Beethoven's
cuckoo Cock and hen in a seventeenth century compo-
sition Rameau's pullet The German quail Music that
is descriptive by suggestion External and internal attri-
butes Fancy and Imagination Harmony and the major
and minor mode Association of ideas Movement delin-

Contents

eated Handel's frogs Water in the "Hebrides" over-
ture and "Ocean" symphonyHeight and depth illus-
trated by acute and grave tones Beethoven's illustration
of distance -His rule enforced Classical and Romantic
music Genesis of the terms What they mean in litera-
ture Archbishop Trench on classical books The au-
thor's definitions of both terms in music Classicism as
the conservative principle, Romanticism as the progres-
sive, regenerative, and creative A contest which stim-
ulates life. . Page 36

The Modern Orchestra

Importance of the instrumental band Some things
that can be learned by its study The orchestral choirs
Disposition of the players Model bands compared De-
velopment of instrumental music The extent of an or-
chestra's register The Strings Violin, Viola, Violon-
cello, and Double-bass Effects produced by changes in
manipulation The wood-winds: Flute, Oboe, English
horn, Bassoon, Clarinet The Brass French Horn, Trum-
pet and Cornet, Trombone, Tuba The Drums The Con-
ductor Rise of the modern interpreter The need of him
His methods Scores and Score-reading. . Page 71

At an Orchestral Concert

" Classical " and " Popular " as generally conceived
Symphony Orchestras and Military bands The higher
forms in music as exemplified at a classical concert-
Symphonies, Overtures, Symphonic Poems, Concertos,
etc. A Symphony not a union of unrelated parts History
of the name The Sonata form and cyclical compositions
The bond of union between the divisions of a Symphony-
Material and spiritual links The first movement and the

XI

CHAP.
III.

CHAP.
IV.

CHAP.
V.

Xll

Contents

CHAP. sonata form "Exposition, illustration, and repetition"
V The subjects and their treatment Keys and nomen-
clature of the Symphony The Adagio or second move-
ment The Scherzo and its relation to the Minuet The
Finale and the Rondo form The latter illustrated in out-
line by a poem Modifications of the symphonic form by
Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Saint-
Saens and Dvorak Augmentation of the forces Sym-
phonies with voices The Symphonic Poem Its three
characteristics Concertos and Cadenzas M. Ysaye's
opinion of the latter Designations in Chamber music
The Overture and its descendants Smaller forms : Ser-
enades, Fantasias, Rhapsodies, Variations, Operatic Ex-
cerpts . . . . . Page 122

At a Pianoforte Recital

CHAP. The Popularity of Pianoforte music exemplified in M

VI. Paderewski's recitals The instrument A universal me-

dium of music study Its defects and merits contrasted
Not a perfect melody instrument Value of the percus-
sive element Technique ; the false and the true estimate
of its value Pianoforte literature as illustrated in recitals
Its division, for the purposes of this study, into four
periods : Classic, Classic-romantic, Romantic, and Bravura
Precursors of the PianoforteThe Clavichord and Harp-
sichord, and the music composed for themPeculiarities
of Bach's style His Romanticism Scarlatti's Sonatas
The Suite and its constituents Allenoande, Courante,
Sarabande, Gigue, Minuet, and Gavotts The technique
of the period How Bach and Handel playedBeethoven
and the Sonata Mozart and Beethoven as pianists The
Romantic composers Schumann and Chopin and tke
forms used by them Schumann and Jean Paul Chopin's
Preludes, Etudes, Nocturnes, Ballades, Polonaises, Ma-
zurkas, Krakowiak The technique of the Romantic pe-

Contents

riod ''Idiomatic" pianoforte music Development of
the instrument The Pedal and its use Liszt and his
Hungarian Rhapsodies. Page 154

At the Opera

Instability of popular taste in respect of operas Our
lists seldom extend back of the present century The peo-
ple of to-day as indifferent as those of two centuries ago
to the language used Use and abuse of foreign lan-
guages The Opera defended as an art-form Its origin in
the Greek tragedies Why music is the language of emo-
tion A scientific explanation Herbert Spencer's laws
Efforts of Florentine scholars to revive the classic tragedy
result in the invention of the lyric drama The various
kinds of Opera : Opera seria, Opera buffa, Opera semiseria ,
French grand Optra, and Optra comique Operettas and
musical farces Romantic Opera A popular conception
of German opera A return to the old terminology led by
Wagner The recitative Its nature, aims, and capaci-
ties The change from speech to song The arioso style,
the accompanied recitative and the aria Music and dra-
matic action Emancipation from set forms The orches-
tra The decay of singing Feats of the masters of the
Roman school and La Bastardella Degeneracy of the
Opera of their day Singers who have been heard in New
York Two generations of singers compared Grisi, Jenny
Lind, Sontag, La Grange, Piccolomini, Adelina Patti,
Nilsson, Sembrich, Lucca, Gerster, Lehmann, Melba,
Eames, Calve*, Mario, Jean and Edouard de Reszke
Wagner and his works Operas and lyric dramas Wag-
ner's return to the principles of the Florentine reformers
Interdependence of elements in a lyric drama; Forms
and the endless melody The Typical Phrases : How they
should be studied. Page 202

XIH

CHAP.
VI.

CHAP.
VII.

XIV

CHAP.
VIII.

CHAP.
IX.

Contents

Choirs and Choral Music

Value of chorus singing in musical culture Schu-
mann's advice to students Choristers and instrumental-
ists Amateurs and professionals Oratorio and Manner-
gesang The choirs of Handel and Bach Glee Unions,
Male Clubs, and Women's Choirs Boys' voices not adapt-
ed to modern music Mixed choirs American Origin of
amateur singing societies Priority over Germany The
size of choirs Large numbers not essential How choirs
are divided Antiphonal effects Excellence in choir sing-
ing Precision, intonation, expression, balance of tone,
enunciation, pronunciation, declamation The cause of
monotony in Oratorio performances A capella music
Genesis of modern hymnology Influence of Luther and
the Germans Use of popular melodies by composers
The chorale Preservation of the severe style of writing
in choral music Palestrina and Bach A study of their
styles Latin and Teuton Church and individual Mo-
tets and Church Cantatas The Passions The Oratorio
Sacred opera and Cantata Epic and Drama Charac-
teristic and descriptive music The Mass : Its seculariza-
tion and musical development The dramatic tendency
illustrated in Beethoven and Berlioz Page 253

Musician, Critic and Public

Criticism justified Relationship between Musician,
Critic and Public To end the conflict between them
would result in stagnation How the Critic might escape
The Musician prefers to appeal to the public rather than
to the Critic Why this is so Ignorance as a safeguard
against and promoter of conservatism Wagner and
Haydn The Critic as the enemy of the charlatan Temp-
tations to which he is exposed Value of popular appro-

Contents

XV

bation Schumann's aphorisms The Public neither bad
judges nor good critics The Critic's duty is to guide pop-
ular judgment Fickleness of the people's opinions Taste ,
and judgment not a birthright The necessity of antece-
dent study The Critic's responsibility Not always that
toward the Musician which the latter thinks How the
newspaper can work for good Must the Critic be a Musi-
cian ? Pedants and Rhapsodists Demonstrable facts in
criticism The folly and viciousness of foolish rhapsody
The Rev. Mr. Haweis cited Ernst's violin Intelligent
rhapsody approved Dr. John Brown on Beethoven The

CHAP.
IX.

PLATES

I. VIOLIN (CLIFFORD SCHMIDT). II. VIOLON-
CELLO (VICTOR HERBERT). III. PICCOLO FLUTE
(C. KURTH, JUN.). IV. OBOE (JOSEPH ELLER). V.
ENGLISH HORN (JOSEPH ELLER). VI. BASSOON
(FEDOR BERNHARDI). VII. CLARINET (HENRY
KAISER). VIII. BASS CLARINET (HENRY KAISER).
IX. FRENCH HORN (CARL PIKPER). X. TROM-
BONE (J. PFEIFFENSCHNEIDER). XI. BASS TUBA
(ANTON REITER). -XII. THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE.
/V'325

INDEX. ...*. /Vtf35i

How to Listen to Music

I

Introduction

'T'HIS book has a purpose, which is
1 as simple as it is plain ; and an un-
pretentious scope. It does not aim to
edify either the musical professor or
the musical scholar. It comes into the
presence of the musical student with all
becoming modesty. Its business is with
those who love music and present them-
selves for its gracious ministrations in
Concert-Room and Opera House, but
have not studied it as professors and
scholars are supposed to study. It is
no* for the careless unless they be will-
i'ig to inquire whether it might not be
well to yield the common conception
of entertainment in favor of the higher
enjoyment which springs from serious
contemplation of beautiful things ; but
if they are willing so to inquire, they

The booKs
appta.1.

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. I.

Talent in
listening.

shall be accounted the class that the
author is most anxious to reach. The
reasons which prompted its writing and
the laying out of its plan will presently
appear. For the frankness of his dis-
closure the author might be willing to
apologize were his reverence for music
less and his consideration for popular
affectations more ; but because he is
convinced that a love for music carries
with it that which, so it be but awak-
ened, shall speedily grow into an honest
desire to know more about the beloved
object, he is willing to seem unamiable
to the amateur while arguing the need
of even so mild a stimulant as his book,
and ingenuous, mayhap even childish,
to the professional musician while try-
ing to point a way in which better ap-
preciation may be sought.

The capacity properly to listen to
music is better proof of musical talent
in the listener than skill to play upo>i
an instrument or ability to sing accept-
ably when unaccompanied by that ca-
pacity. It makes more for that gentle-
ness and refinement of emotion, thought,
and action which, in the highest sense

Introduction

of the term, it is the province of music
to promote. And it is a much rarer ac-
complishment. I cannot conceive any-
thing more pitiful than the spectacle of
men and women perched on a fair ob-
servation point exclaiming rapturously
at the loveliness of mead and valley,
their eyes melting involuntarily in ten-
derness at the sight of moss-carpeted
slopes and rocks and peaceful wood, or
dilating in reverent wonder at mountain
magnificence, and then learning from
their exclamations that, as a matter of
fact, they are unable to distinguish be-
tween rock and tree, field and forest,
earth and sky ; between the dark -
browns of the storm-scarred rock, the
greens of the foliage, and the blues of
the sky.

Yet in the realm of another sense,
in the contemplation of beauties more
ethereal and evanescent than those of
nature, such is the experience which
in my capacity as a writer for news-
papers I have made for many years. A
party of people blind to form and color
cannot be said to be well equipped for
a Swiss journey, though loaded down

CHAP. I.

ill

equipped
listeners.

CHAP. I.

Popular
ignorance
of music.

How to Listen to Music

with alpenstocks and Baedekers ; yet
the spectacle of such a party on the top
of the Rigi is no more pitiful and anom-
alous than that presented by the major-
ity of the hearers in our concert-rooms.
They are there to adventure a journey
'into a realm whose beauties do not dis-
close themselves to the senses alone, but
whose perception requires a co-opera-
tion of all the finer faculties ; yet of this
they seem to know nothing, and even
of that sense to which the first appeal
is made it may be said with profound
truth that " hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand."

Of all the arts, music is practised
most and thought about least. Why
this should be the case may be ex-
plained on several grounds. A sweet
mystery enshrouds the nature of music.
Its material part is subtle and elusive.
To master it on its technical side alone
costs a vast expenditure of time, pa-
tience, and industry. But since it is, in
one manifestation or another, the most
popular of the arts, and one the enjoy-
ment of which is conditioned in a pecul-
iar degree on love, it remains passing

Introduction

strange that the indifference touching
its nature and elements, and the charac-
ter of the phenomena which produce it,
or are produced by it, is so general. I
do not recall that anybody has ever tried
to ground this popular ignorance touch-
ing an art of which, by right of birth,
everybody is a critic. The unamiable
nature of the task, of which I am keenly
conscious, has probably been a bar to
such an undertaking. But a frank diag-
nosis must precede the discovery of a
cure for every disease, and I have un-
dertaken to point out a way in which
this grievous ailment in the social body
may at least be lessened.

,It is not an exaggeration to say that
one might listen for a lifetime to the po-
lite conversation of our drawing-rooms
(and I do not mean by this to refer to the
United States alone) without hearing a
symphony talked about in terms indic-
ative of more than the most superficial
knowledge of the outward form, that is,
the dimensions and apparatus, of such a
composition. No other art provides
an exact analogy for this phenomenon.
Everybody can say something contain-

CHAP. I.

Paucity of
intelligent
comment.

8

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. i.

Want of a
model.

Simple
terms con-
founded.

ing a degree of appositeness about a
poem, novel, painting, statue, or build-
ing. If he can do no more he can go
as far as Landseer's rural critic who
objected to one of the artist's paintings
on the ground that not one of the three
pigs eating from a trough had a foot in
it. It is the absence of the standard of
judgment employed in this criticism
which makes significant talk about mu-
sic so difficult. Nature failed to pro-
vide a model for this ethereal art.
There is nothing in the natural world
with which the simple man may com-
pare it.

It is not alone a knowledge of the
constituent factors of a symphony, or
the difference between a sonata and a
suite, a march and a mazurka, that is
rare. Unless you chance to be listen-
ing to the conversation of musicians (in
which term I wish to include amateurs
who are what the word amateur implies,
and whose knowledge stands in some
respectable relation to their love), you
will find, so frequently that I have not the
heart to attempt an estimate of the pro-
portion, that the most common words

Introduction

in the terminology of the art are mis-
applied. Such familiar things as har-
mony and melody, time and tune, are
continually confounded. Let us call a
distinguished witness into the box ; the
instance is not new, but it will serve.
What does Tennyson mean when he
says :

" All night have the ro&es heard

The flute, violin, 'bassoon ;
All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd
To the dancers dancing in tune ? "

Unless the dancers who wearied
Maud were provided with even a more
extraordinary instrumental outfit than
the Old Lady of Banbury Cross, how
could they have danced "in tune?"

Musical study of a sort being almost
as general as study of the "three Rs,"
it must be said that the gross forms of
ignorance are utterly inexcusable. But
if this is obvious, it is even more obvi-
ous that there is something radically
wrong with the prevalent systems of
musical instruction. It is because of
a plentiful lack of knowledge that so
much that is written on music is with-

9

CHAP. I.

Tune and
time.

10

CHAP. I.

Blunders
of poets and
essayists.

How to Listen to Music

out meaning, and that the most foolish
kind of rhapsody, so it show a colloca-
tion of fine words, is permitted to mas-
querade as musical criticism and even
analysis. People like to read about
music, and the books of a certain Eng-
lish clergyman have had a sale of stu-
pendous magnitude notwithstanding
they are full of absurdities. The clergy-
man has a multitudinous companion-
ship, moreover, among novelists, essay-
ists, and poets whose safety lies in more
or less fantastic generalization when
they come to talk about music. How
they flounder when they come to detail !
It was Charles Lamb who said, in his
"Chapter on Ears," that in voices he
could not distinguish a soprano from a
tenor, and could only contrive to guess
at the thorough-bass from its being " su-
pereminently harsh and disagreeable ; "
yet dear old Elia may be forgiven, since
his confounding the bass voice with a
system of musical short-hand is so de-
lightful a proof of the ignorance he was
confessing.

But what shall the troubled critics
say to Tennyson's orchestra consisting

Introduction

11

of a flute, violin, and bassoon ? Or to
Coleridge's " loud bassoon," which made
the wedding-guest to beat his breast?
Or to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's
pianist who played " with an airy and
bird - like touch ? " Or to our own
clever painter-novelist who, in " Snub-
bin* through Jersey," has Brushes bring
out his violoncello and play " the sym-
phonies of Beethoven " to entertain his
fellow canal-boat passengers ? The ten-
dency toward realism, or " veritism," as
it is called, has brought out a rich crop
of blunders. It will not do to have a
character in a story simply sing or play
something ; we must have the names of
composers and compositions. The ge-
nial gentleman who enriched musical lit-
erature with arrangements of Beetho-
ven's symphonies for violoncello without
accompaniment has since supplemented
this feat by creating a German fiddler
who, when he thinks himself unnoticed,
plays a sonata for violin and contralto
voice ; Professor Brander Matthews
permits one of his heroines to sing
Schumann's " Warum ? " and one of his
heroes plays " The Moonlight Concer-

CHAP. I.

Literary
realism
and musi-
cal termi-
nology.

12

CHAP. I.

A popular
need.

How to Listen to Music

to ; " one of Ouida's romantic creatures
spends hours at an organ " playing the
grand old masses of Mendelssohn ; " in
"Moths" the tenor never wearies of
singing certain "exquisite airs of Pal-
estrina," which recalls the fact that an
indignant correspondent of a St. Lou-
is newspaper, protesting against the
Teutonism and heaviness of an orches-
tra conductor's programmes, demanded
some of the " lighter " works of " Ber-
lioz and Palestrina."

Alas ! these things and the many oth-
ers equally amusing which Mr. G. Suth-
erland Edwards long ago catalogued in
an essay on " The Literary Maltreatment
of Music" are but evidences that even
cultured folk have not yet learned to
talk correctly about the art which is prac-
tised most widely. There is a greater
need than pianoforte teachers and sing-
ing teachers, and that is a numerous com-
pany of writers and talkers who shall
teach the people how to listen to music
so that it shall not pass through their
heads like a vast tonal phantasmagoria,
but provide the varied and noble de-
lights contemplated by the composers.

Introduction

Ungracious as it might appear, it
may yet not be amiss, therefore, at the
very outset of an inquiry into the proper
way in which to listen to music, to utter
a warning against much that is written
on the art. As a rule it will be found
that writers on music are divided into
two classes, and that neither of these
classes can do much good. Too often
they are either pedants or rhapsodists.
This division is wholly natural. Mu-
sic has marfy sides and is a science
as well as ah art. Its scientific side is
that on which the pedant generally ap-
proaches it. He is concerned with
forms and rules, with externals, to the
forgetting of that which is inexpressibly
nobler and higher. But the pedants are
not harmful, because they are not inter-
esting ; strictly speaking, they do not
write for the public at all, but only
for their professional colleagues. The
harmful men are the foolish rhapsodists
who take advantage of the fact that
the language of music is indeterminate
and evanescent to talk about the art in
such a way as to present themselves as
persons of exquisite sensibilities rather

CHAP. i.

A warning

against

writers.

Pedants
and rhap-
sodists.

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. I. than to direct attention to the real nat-
ure and beauty of music itself. To
them I shall recur in a later chapter de-
voted to musical criticism, and haply
point out the difference between good
and bad critics and commentators from
the view -point of popular need and
popular opportunity.

II

Recognition of Musical Elements

MUSIC is dual in its nature; it is
material as well as spiritual. Its
material side we apprehend through
{ the sense of hearing, and comprehend
through the intellect ; its spiritual side
reaches us through the fancy (or imagi-
nation, so 'it be music of the highest
class), and the emotional part of us. If
the scope and capacity of the art, and
the evolutionary processes which its
history discloses (a record of which is
preserved in its nomenclature), are to
be understood, it is essential that this
duality be kept in view. There is
something so potent and elemental in
the appeal which music makes that it
is possible to derive pleasure from
even an unwilling hearing or a hearing
unaccompanied by effort at analysis ;

The nature
of music.

i6

CHAP. II.

Necessity
of intelli-
gent hear-
ing.

How to Listen to Music

but real appreciation of its beauty,
which means recognition of the quali-
ties which put it in the realm of art, is
conditioned upon intelligent hearing.
The higher the intelligence, the keener
will be the enjoyment, if the former be
directed to the spiritual side as well as
the material.

So far as music is merely agreeably
co-ordinated sounds, it may be reduced
to mathematics and its practice to handi-
craft. But recognition of design is a
condition precedent to the awakening
of the fancy or the imagination, and to
achieve such recognition there must be
intelligent hearing in the first instance.
For the purposes of this study, design
may be held to be Form in its primary
stages, the recognition of which is pos-
sible to every listener who is fond of
music ; it is not necessary that he be
learned in the science. He need only
be willing tc let an intellectual process,
which will bring its own reward, ac-
company the physical process of hear-
ing.

Without discrimination it is impossi-
ble to recognize even the crude materials

Recognition of Musical Elements

of music, for the first step is already a
co-ordination of those materials. A
tone becomes musical material only by
association with another tone. We
might hear it alone, study its quality,
and determine its degree of acuteness
or gravity (its pitch, as musicians say),
but it can never become music so long
as it remains isolated. When we recog-
nize that it bears certain relationships
with other tones in respect of time or
tune (to use simple terms), it has be-
come for us musical material. We do
not need to philosophize about the nat-
ure of those relationships, but we must
recognize their existence.

Thus much we might hear if we were
to let music go through our heads like
water through a sieve. Yet the step
from that degree of discrimination to
a rudimentary analysis of Form is ex-
ceedingly short, and requires little more
than a willingness to concentrate the
attention and exercise the memory.
Everyone is willing to do that much
while looking at a picture. Who would
look at a painting and rest satisfied with
the impression made upon the sense of

CHAP. II.

Tones and

musical

material.

The begin-
nings of
Form.

i8

CHAP. II.

Compari-
son with a
model not
fossible.

How to Listen to Music

sight by the colors merely ? No one,
surely. Yet so soon as we look, so as
to discriminate between the outlines, to
observe the relationship of figure to
figure, we are indulging in intellectual
exercise. If this be a condition prece-
dent to the enjoyment of a picture (and
it plainly is), how much more so is it in
the case of music, which is intangible
and evanescent, which cannot pause a
moment for our contemplation without
ceasing to be ?

There is another reason why we must
exercise intelligence in listening, to
which I have already alluded in the first
chapter. Our appreciation of beauty
in the plastic arts is helped by the cir-
cumstance that the critical activity is
largely a matter of comparison. Is the
picture or the statue a good copy of the
object sought to be represented ? Such
comparison fails us utterly in music,
which copies nothing that is tangibly
present in the external world.

It is then necessary to associate the
intellect with sense perception in listen-
ing to music. How far is it essential
that the intellectual process shall go?

Recognition of Musical Elements

This book being for the untrained, the
question might be put thus : With how
little knowledge of the science can an
intelligent listener get along ? We are
concerned only with his enjoyment of
music or, better, with an effort to in-
crease it without asking him to be-
come a musician. If he is fond of the
art it is more than likely that the capac-
ity to discriminate sufficiently to recog-
nize the elements out of which music
is made has come to him intuitively.
Does he recognize that musical tones
are related to each other in respect of
time and pitch? Then it shall not be
difficult for him to recognize the three
elements on which music rests Melody,
Harmony, and Rhythm. Can he recog-
nize them with sufficient distinctness to
seize upon their manifestations while
music is sounding? Then memory
shall come to the aid of discrimina-
tion, and he shall be able to appreciate
enough of design to point the way to a
true and lofty appreciation of the beau-
tiful in music. The value of memory is
for obvious reasons very great in mu-
sical enjoyment. The picture remains

CHAP. II.

What de-
gree of
knowledge
is neces-
sary ?

The Ele-
ments.

Value of
memory.

20

CHAP. II.

An inter-

mediary

necessary.

How to Listen to Music

upon the wall, the book upon the li-
brary shelf. If we have failed to grasp
a detail at the first glance or reading,
we need but turn again to the picture
or open the book anew. We may see
the picture in a changed light, or read
the poem in a different mood, but the
outlines, colors, ideas are fixed for fre-
quent and patient perusal. Music goes
out of existence with every perform-
ance, and must be recreated at every
hearing.

Not only that, but in the case of all,
so far as some forms are concerned, and
of all who are not practitioners in
others, it is necessary that there shall
be an intermediary between the com-
poser and the listener. The written or
printed notes are not music ; they are
only signs which indicate to the per-
former what to do to call tones into ex-
istence such as the composer had com-
bined into an art-work in his mind.
The broadly trained musician can read
the symbols ; they stir his imagination,
and he hears the music in his imagi-
nation as the composer heard it. But
the untaught music-lover alone can get

Recognition of Musical Elements

nothing from the printed page ; he
must needs wait till some one else shall
again waken for him the

" Sound of a voice that is still."

This is one of the drawbacks which
are bound up in the nature of music;
but it has ample compensation in the
unusual pleasure which memory brings.
In the case of the best music, familiar-
ity breeds ever-growing admiration.
New compositions are slowly received ;
they make their way to popular appre-
ciation only by repeated performances ;
the people like best the songs as well as
the symphonies which they know. The
quicker, therefore, that we are in rec-
ognizing the melodic, harmonic, and
rhythmic contents of a new composi-
tion, and the more apt our memory in
seizing upon them for the operation of
the fancy, the greater shall be our pleas-
ure.

In simple phrase Melody is a well-
ordered series of tones heard succes-
sively ; Harmony, a well-ordered series
heard simultaneously ; Rhythm, a sym-
metrical grouping of tonal time units

21

CHAP. II.

The value
of memory.

Melody,
Harmony,
and
Rhythm.

22

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. ii.

Compre-
hensiveness
of Melody.

Repetition.

vitalized by accent. The life-blood of
music is Melody, and a complete con-
ception of the term embodies within it-
self the essence of both its companions.
A succession of tones without harmonic
regulation is not a perfect element in
music ; neither is a succession of tones
which have harmonic regulation but are
void of rhythm. The, beauty and ex-
pressiveness, especially the emotional-
ity, of a musical composition depend
upon the harmonies which either ac-
company the melody in the form of
chords (a group of melodic intervals
sounded simultaneously), or are latent
in the melody itself (harmonic intervals
sounded successively). Melody is Har-
mony analyzed ; Harmony is Melody
synthetized.

The fundamental principle of Form
is repetition of melodies, which are to
music what ideas are to poetry. Melo-
dies themselves are made by repetition
of smaller fractions called motives (a
term borrowed from the fine arts),
phrases, and periods, which derive their
individuality from their rhythmical or
intervallic characteristics. Melodies are

Recognition of Musical Elements

not all of the simple kind which the
musically illiterate, or the musically ill-
trained, recognize as " tunes," but they
all have a symmetrical organization.
The dissection of a simple folk-tune
may serve to make this plain and also
indicate to the untrained how a single
feature may be taken as a mark of
identification and a holding-point for
the memory. Here is the melody of a
Creole song called sometimes Pov* piti
Lolotte, sometimes Pov' piti Momzelle
Zizi, in the patois of Louisiana and
Martinique :

tr

m

It will be as apparent to the eye of one
who cannot read music as it will to his
ear when he hears this melody played,
that it is built up of two groups of notes
only. These groups are marked off by
the heavy lines across the staff called
bars, whose purpose it is to indicate

2 3

CHAP. II.

A melody
analyzed.

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. II.

Motives,
phrases,
and
periods.

rhythmical subdivisions in music. The
second, third, fifth, sixth, and seventh
of these groups are repetitions merely
of the first group, which is the germ of
the melody, but on different degrees of
the scale ; the fourth and eighth groups
are identical and are an appendage
hitched to the first group for the pur-
pose of bringing it to a close, supplying
a resting-point craved by man's innate
sense of symmetry. Musicians call such
groups cadences. A musical analyst
would call each group a motive, and say
that each successive two groups, begin-
ning with the first, constitute a phrase,
each two phrases a period, and the two
periods a melody. We have therefore
in this innocent Creole tune eight mo-
tives, four phrases, and two periods ;
yet its material is summed up in two
groups, one of seven notes, one of five,
which only need to be identified and re-
membered to enable a listener to recog-
nize something of the design of a com-
poser if he were to put the melody to
the highest purposes that melody can
be put in the art of musical composi-
tion.

Recognition of Musical Elements

Repetition is the constructive princi-
ple which was employed by the folk-
musician in creating this melody ; and
repetition is the fundamental principle
in all musical construction. It will suf-
fice for many merely to be reminded of
this to appreciate the fact that while the
exercise of memory is a most necessary
activity in listening to music, it lies in
music to make that exercise easy.
There is repetition of motives, phrases,
and periods in melody ; repetition of
melodies in parts ; and repetition of
parts in the wholes of the larger forms.

The beginnings of poetic forms are
also found in repetition ; in primitive
poetry it is exemplified in the refrain
or burden, in the highly developed poe-
try of the Hebrews in parallelism. The
Psalmist wrote :

" O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath,
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. "

Here is a period of two members, the
latter repeating the thought of the for-
mer. A musical analyst might find in
it an admirable analogue for the first
period of a simple melody. He would

CHAP. II.

Repetition
in music.

Repetition
in poetry.

26

CHAP. II.

Key rela-
tionship.

The

rhythmical

stamp.

How to Listen to Music

divide it into four motives : " Rebuke
me not | in thy wrath | neither chasten
me | in thy hot displeasure," and point
out as intimate a relationship between
them as exists in the Creole tune. The
bond of union between the motives of
the melody as well as that in the poe-
try illustrates a principle of beauty
which is the most important element in
musical design after repetition, which is
its necessary vehicle. It is because this
principle guides the repetition of the
tone-groups that together they form a
melody that is perfect, satisfying, and
reposeful. It is the principle of key-
relationship, to discuss which fully
would carry me farther into musical
science than I am permitted to go. Let
this suffice : A harmony is latent in
each group, and the sequence of groups
is such a sequence as the experience of
ages has demonstrated to be most
agreeable to the ear.

In the case of the Creole melody the
listener is helped to a quick apprecia-
tion of its form by the distinct physiog-
nomy which rhythm has stamped upon
it ; and it is by noting such a character-

Recognition of Musical Elements

istic that the memory can best be aided
in its work of identification. It is not
necessary for a listener to follow all the
processes of a composer in order to en-
joy his music, but if he cultivates the
habit of following the principal themes
through a work of the higher class he
will not only enjoy the pleasures of
memory but will frequently get a
glimpse into the composer's purposes
which will stimulate his imagination
and mightily increase his enjoyment.
There is nothing can guide him more
surely to a recognition of the princi-
ple of unity, which makes a symphony
to be an organic whole instead of a
group of pieces which are only ex-
ternally related. The greatest exem-
plar of this principle is Beethoven ; and
his music is the best in which to study
it for the reason that he so frequently
employs material signs for the spiritual
bond. So forcibly has this been im-
pressed upon me at times that I am
almost willing to believe that a keen
analytical student of his music might
arrange his greater works into groups
of such as were in process of composi-

CHAP. II.

Theprin-

28

CHAP. II.

A rhyth-
mical mo-
tive pur-
sued.

How to Listen to Music

tion at the same time without refer-
ence to his personal history. Take the
principal theme of the C minor Sym-
phony for example :

Allegro con brio. ^

This simple, but marvellously preg-
nant, motive is not only the kernel of
the first movement, it is the fundamental
thought of the whole symphony. We
hear its persistent beat in the scherzo
as well :

Allegro.

EJ^T J J J-h-H J J J^

and also in the last movement :

Allegro

More than this, we find the motive
haunting the first movement of the

Recognition of Musical Elements

pianoforte sonata in F minor, op. 57,
known as the " Sonata Appassionata,"
now gloomily, almost morosely, procla-
mative in the bass, now interrogative in
the treble :

poco rit.

Schindler relates that when once he
asked Beethoven to tell him what the
F minor and the D minor (Op. 31, No. 2)
sonatas meant, he received for an answer
only the enigmatical remark : " Read
Shakespeare's ' Tempest.' " Many a stu-
dent and commentator has since read
the " Tempest " in the hope of finding a
clew to the emotional contents which
Beethoven believed to be in the two
works, so singularly associated, only to
find himself baffled. It is a fancy, which
rests perhaps too much on outward
things, but still one full of suggestion,
that had Beethoven said : " Hear my C
minor Symphony," he would have given
a better starting-point to the imagina-

2 9

CHAP. II.

Relation-
skips in
Beethoven t
works.

CHAP. II.

The C mi-
nor Sym-
fkony and
"Appas-
sionata
sonata.

How to Listen to Music

tion of those who are seeking to know
what the F minor sonata means. Most
obviously it means music, but it means
music that is an expression of one of
those psychological struggles which
Beethoven felt called upon more and
more to delineate as he was more and
more shut out from the companionship
of the external world. Such struggles
are in the truest sense of the word tem-
pests. The motive, which, according
to the story, Beethoven himself said in-
dicates, in the symphony, the rappings
of Fate at the door of human existence,
is common to two works which are also
related in their spiritual contents. Sin-
gularly enough, too, in both cases the
struggle which is begun in the first
movement and continued in the third,
is interrupted by a period of calm reas-
suring, soul-fortifying aspiration, which
in the symphony as well as in the so-
nata takes the form of a theme with va-
riations. Here, then, the recognition of
a simple rhythmical figure has helped
us to an appreciation of the spiritual
unity of the parts of a symphony, and
provided a commentary on the poetical

Recognition of Musical Elements

contents of a sonata. But the lesson is
not yet exhausted. Again do we find
the rhythm coloring the first movement
of the pianoforte concerto in G major :

etc.

Symphony, concerto, and sonata, as
the sketch-books of the master show,
were in process of creation at the same
time.

Thus far we have been helped in
identifying a melody and studying re-
lationships by the rhythmical structure
of a single motive. The demonstration
might be extended on the same line
into Beethoven's symphony in A major,
in which the external sign of the poeti-
cal idea which underlies the whole
work is also rhythmic so markedly so
that Wagner characterized it most hap-
pily and truthfully when he said that it
was "the apotheosis of the dance."
Here it is the dactyl, U U, which in

3 1

CHAP. II.

Beethoven's
G major
Concerto.

His Sev-
enth Sym-
phony.

3 2

CHAP. II.

Use of a
dactylic
figure.

How to Listen to Music

one variation, or another, clings to us
almost as persistently as in Hood's
" Bridge of Sighs : "

" One more unfortunate

Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death."

We hear it lightly tripping in the first
movement :

JT3and J^JTl

gentle, sedate, tender, measured, through
its combination with a spondee in the
second :

J J1|J J;

cheerily, merrily, jocosely happy in the
Scherzo :

J J;
hymn-like in the Trio :

and wildly bacchanalian when subjected
to trochaic abbreviation in the Finale :

Intervallic characteristics may place
the badge of relationship upon melodies

Recognition of Musical Elements

33

as distinctly as rhythmic. There is no

CHAP. II.

more perfect illustration of this than that

afforded by Beethoven's Ninth Sym-

phony. Speaking of the subject of its

Intervallic

finale, Sir George Grove says :

character-
istics.

"And note while listening to the simple tune

itself, before the variations begin how very simple

it is; the plain diatonic scale, not a single chro-

matic interval, and out of fifty-six notes only three

not consecutive." *

Earlier in the same work, while com-

bating a statement by Lenz that the re-

semblance between the second subject

of the first movement and the choral mel-

ody is a " thematic reference of the most

striking importance, vindicating the

unity of the entire work, and placing

The melo-

the whole in a perfectly new light," Sir

dies in
Beethoven's

George says :

Ninth
Symphony.

" It is, however, very remarkable that so many of

the melodies in the Symphony should consist of

consecutive notes, and that in no less than four

of them the notes should run up a portion of the

scale and down again apparently pointing to a

consistent condition of Beethoven's mind through-

out this work."

* " Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," p. 374.

34

How to Listen to

Music

CHAP. II.

Melodic
likenesses.

Like Goethe, Beethoven secreted
many a mystery in his masterpiece, but
he did not juggle idly with tones, or
select the themes of his symphonies at
hap-hazard; he would be open to the
charge, however, if the resemblances
which I have pointed out in the Fifth
and Seventh Symphonies, and those
disclosed by the following melodies
from his Ninth, should turn out through
some incomprehensible revelation to be
mere coincidences :
From the first movement:

cT dolce. p

From the second :

i/ u g; r r +i; r fri r r r i

i V

etc.

It 1 J q

1 ! ' JU

1 r r 'I

laJ d n* -1

t 1 t
etc.

f^~tf\rt\

etc.

^

Recognition of Musical Elements

The choral melody

etc.

From a recognition of the beginnings
of design, to which identification of the
composer's thematic material and its
simpler relationships will lead, to so
much knowledge of Form as will enable
the reader to understand the later chap-
ters in this book, is but a step.

CHAP. II.

Design
and Form,

Metaphys-
ics to be
avoided
herein.

III

The Content and Kinds of Music

BEARING in mind the purpose of
this book, I shall not ask the
reader to accompany me far afield in
the region of aesthetic philosophy or
musical metaphysics. A short excur-
sion is all that is necessary to make
plain what is meant by such terms as
Absolute music, Programme music,
Classical, Romantic, and Chamber music
and the like, which not only confront us
continually in discussion, but stand for
things which we must know if we would
read programmes understandingly and
appreciate the various phases in which
music presents itself to us. It is inter-
esting and valuable to know why an art-
work stirs up pleasurable feelings within
us, and to speculate upon its relations to
the intellect and the emotions ; but the

The Content and Kinds of Music

circumstance that philosophers have
never agreed, and probably never will
agree, on these points, so far as the art
of music is concerned, alone suffices to
remove them from the field of this dis-
cussion.

Intelligent listening is not conditioned
upon such knowledge. Even when the
study is begun, the questions whether
or not music has a content beyond itself,
where that content is to be sought, and
how defined, will be decided in each case
by the student for himself, on grounds
which may be said to be as much in his
nature as they are in the argument.
The attitude of man toward the art is
an individual one, and in some of its
aspects defies explanation.

The amount and kind of pleasure
which music gives him are frequently
as much beyond his understanding and
control as they are beyond the under-
standing and control of the man who sits
beside him. They are consequences
of just that particular combination of
material and spiritual elements, just
that blending of muscular, nervous, and
cerebral tissues, which make him what

37

CHAP.
III.

Personal
equation in
judgment.

CHAP.
III.

A musical
fiuid.

How to Listen to Music

he is, which segregate him as an individ-
ual from the mass of humanity. We
speak of persons as susceptible or insus-
ceptible to music as we speak of good
and poor conductors of electricity ; and
the analogy implied here is particularly
apt and striking. If we were still using
the scientific terms of a few decades ago
I should say that a musical fluid might
yet be discovered and its laws correlated
with those of heat, light, and electricity.
Like them, when reduced to its lowest
terms, music is a form of motion, and it
should not be difficult on this analogy
to construct a theory which would ac-
count for the physical phenomena which
accompany the hearing of music in some
persons, such as the recession of blood
from the face, or an equally sudden suf-
fusion of the same veins, a contraction
of the scalp accompanied by chilliness
or a prickling sensation, or that rough-
ness of the skin called goose-flesh, " flesh
moved by an idea, flesh horripilated by
a thought."

It has been denied that feelings are the
content of music, or that it is the mis-
sion of music to give expression to feel-

The Content and Kinds of Music

ings; but the scientific fact remains
that the fundamental elements of vocal
music pitch, quality, and dynamic in-
tensity are the results of feelings work-
ing upon the vocal organs ; and even if
Mr. Herbert Spencer's theory be re-
jected, it is too late now to deny that
music is conceived by its creators as a
language of the emotions and so applied
by them. The German philosopher
Herbarth sought to reduce the ques-
tion to an absurdity by expressing sur-
prise that musicians should still believe
that feelings could be " the proximate
cause of the rules of simple and double
counterpoint ; " but Dr. Stainer found
a sufficient answer by accepting the
proposition as put, and directing at-
tention to the fact that the feelings of
men having first decided what was
pleasurable in polyphony, and the rules
of counterpoint having afterward been
drawn from specimens of pleasurable
polyphony, it was entirely correct to
say that feelings are the proximate cause
of the laws of counterpoint.

It is because so many of us have been
taught by poets and romancers to think

39

CHAP.
III.

Origin of

musical

elements.

Feelings
and coun-
terpoint.

CHAP.
III.

How com-
posers hear
music*

How to Listen to Music

that there is a picture of some kind, or
a story in every piece of music, and
find ourselves unable to agree upon
the picture or the story in any given
case, that confusion is so prevalent
among the musical laity. Composers
seldom find difficulty in understanding
each other. They listen for beauty, and
if they find it they look for the causes
which have produced it, and in appre-
hending beauty and recognizing means
and cause they unvolitionally rise to
the plane whence a view of the com-
poser's purposes is clear. Having
grasped the mood of a composition and
found that it is being sustained or va-
ried in a manner accordant with their
conceptions of beauty, they occupy
themselves with another kind of dif-
ferentiation altogether than the misled
disciples of the musical rhapsodists
who overlook the general design and
miss the grand proclamation in their
search for petty suggestions for pict-
ures and stories among the details of
the composition. Let musicians testify
for us. In his romance, " Ein Gluck-
licher Abend," Wagner says :

The Content and Kinds of Music

41 That which music expresses is eternal and
ideal. It does not give voice to the passion, the
love, the longing of this or the other individual,
under these or the other circumstances, but to
passion, love, longing itself."

Moritz Hauptmann says :

" The same music will admit of the most varied
verbal expositions, and of not one of them can it be
correctly said that it is exhaustive, the right one,
and contains the whole significance of the music.
This significance is contained most definitely in the
music itself. It is not music that is ambiguous ; it
says the same thing to everybody ; it speaks to
mankind and gives voice only to human feelings.
Ambiguity only then makes its appearance when
each person attempts to formulate in his manner
the emotional impression which he has received,
when he attempts to fix and hold the ethereal
essence of music, to utter the unutterable."

Mendelssohn inculcated the same les-
son in a letter which he wrote to a
young poet who had given titles to a
number of the composer's " Songs
Without Words," and incorporated
what he conceived to be their senti-
ments in a set of poems. He sent his
work to Mendelssohn with the request
that the composer inform the writer

CHAP.
III.

Wagner's
axiom.

Hauft-
manrt's.

Mendels-
sohn's.

CHAP.
III.

Tht

" Songs
without
Words."

Tkt tonal
language.

How to Listen to Music

whether or not he had succeeded in
catching the meaning of the music.
He desired the information because
" music's capacity for expression is so
vague and indeterminate." Mendels-
sohn replied :

"You give the various numbers of the book
such titles as * I Think of Thee,' ' Melancholy,'
'The Praise of God,' 'A Merry Hunt.' I can
scarcely say whether I thought of these or other
things while composing the music. Another might
find ' I Think of Thee ' where you find ' Melan-
choly,' and a real huntsman might consider ' A
Merry Hunt ' a veritable ' Praise of God.' But
this is not because, as you think, music is vague.
On the contrary, I believe that musical expression
is altogether too definite, that it reaches regions and
dwells in them whither words cannot follow it and
must necessarily go lame when they make the
attempt as you would have them do."

If I were to try to say why musi-
cians, great musicians, speak thus of their
art, my explanation would be that they
have developed, farther than the rest of
mankind have been able to develop it,
a language of tones, which, had it been
so willed, might have been developed
so as to fill the place now occupied by

The Content and Kinds of Music

articulate speech. Herbert Spencer,
though speaking purely as a scientific
investigator, not at all as an artist, de-
fined music as " a language of feelings
which may ultimately enable men
vividly and completely to impress
on each other the emotions they experi-
ence from moment to moment." We
rely upon speech to do this now, but
ever and anon when, in a moment of
emotional exaltation, we are deserted
by the articulate word we revert to the
emotional cry which antedates speech,
and find that that cry is universally un-
derstood because it is universally felt.
More than speech, if its primitive ele-
ment of emotionality be omitted, more
than the primitive language of gesture,
music is a natural mode of expression.
All three forms have attained their pres-
ent stage of development through con-
ventions. Articulate speech has led in
the development; gesture once occupied
a high plane (in the pantomimic dance of
the ancients) but has now retrograded ;
music, supreme at the outset, then neg-
lected, is but now pushing forward into
the place which its nature entitles it to

43

CHAP.
III.

Herbert

Spencer's

definition.

Natural
expression.

44

CHAP.
III.

Absolute
music.

How to Listen to Music

occupy. When we conceive of an art-
work composed of such elements, and
foregoing the adventitious helps which
may accrue to it from conventional idi-
oms based on association of ideas, we
have before us the concept of Absolute
music, whose content, like that of every
noble artistic composition, be it of tones
or forms or colors or thoughts expressed
in words, is that high ideal of goodness,
truthfulness, and beauty for which all
lofty imaginations strive. Such art-
works are the instrumental composi-
tions in the classic forms ; such, too,
may be said to be the high type of ideal-
ized " Programme " music, which, like
the " Pastoral " symphony of Beethoven,
is designed to awaken emotions like
those awakened by the contemplation
of things, but does not attempt to depict
the things themselves. Having men-
tioned Programme music I must, of
course, try to tell what it is ; but the
exposition must be preceded by an ex-
planation of a kind of music which, be-
cause of its chastity, is set down as the
finest form of absolute music. This is
Chamber music.

The Content and Kinds of Music

In a broad sense, but one not em-
ployed in modern definition, Chamber
music is all music not designed for per-
formance in the church or theatre.
(Out-of-door music cannot be consid-
ered among these artistic forms of aris-
tocratic descent.) Once, and indeed at
the time of its invention, the term meant
music designed especially for the delec-
tation of the most eminent patrons of
the art the kings and nobles whose
love for it gave it maintenance and en-
couragement. This is implied by the
term itself, which has the same etymol-
ogy wherever the form of music is
cultivated. In Italian it is Musica da
Camera; in French, Musique de Cham-
bre ; in German, Kammermusik. All the
terms have a common root. The Greek
/cajjidpa signified an arch, a vaulted room,
or a covered wagon. In the time of the
Prankish kings the word was applied
to the room in the royal palace in which
the monarch's private property was
kept, and in which he looked after his
private affairs. When royalty took up
the cultivation of music it was as a pri-
vate, not as a court, function, and the

45

CHAP.
III.

Chamber
music.

History of
the term.

4 6

CHAP.
III.

Haydn
a servant.

Beethoven's

Chamber

music.

How to Listen to Music

concerts given for the entertainment of
the royal family took place in the king's
chamber, or private room. The musi-
cians were nothing more nor less than
servants in the royal household. This
relationship endured into the present
century. Haydn was a Hausofficier of
Prince Esterhazy. As vice-chapelmas-
ter he had to appear every morning in
the Prince's ante-room to receive orders
concerning the dinner-music and other
entertainments of the day, and in the
certificate of appointment his conduct
is regulated with a particularity which
we, who remember him and reverence
his genius but have forgotten his mas-
ter, think humiliating in the extreme.

Out of this cultivation of music in the
private chamber grew the characteris-
tics of Chamber music, which we must
consider if we would enjoy it ourselves
and understand the great reverence
which the great masters of music have
always felt for it. Beethoven was the
first great democrat among musicians.
He would have none of the shackles
which his predecessors wore, and com-
pelled aristocracy of birth to bow to

The Content and Kinds of Music

aristocracy of genius. But such was
his reverence for the style of music
which had grown up in the chambers
of the great that he devoted the last
three years of his life almost exclusively
to its composition ; the peroration of
his proclamation to mankind consists of
his last quartets the holiest of holy
things to the Chamber musicians of to-
day.

Chamber music represents pure
thought, lofty imagination, and deep
learning. These attributes are encour-
aged by the idea of privacy which is
inseparable from the form. Composers
find it the finest field for the display of
their talents because their own skill in
creating is to be paired with trained
skill in hearing. Its representative
pieces are written for strings alone
trios, quartets, and quintets. With the
strings are sometimes associated a
pianoforte, or one or more of the solo
wind instruments oboe, clarinet, or
French horn ; and as a rule the com-
positions adhere to classical lines (see
Chapter V.). Of necessity the mod-
esty of the apparatus compels it to fore-

47

CHAP.
III.

The

character-
istics of
Chamber

4 8

CHAP.
III.

Pro-
gramme

How to Listen to Music

go nearly all the adventitious helps
with which other forms of composition
gain public approval. In the delinea-
tive arts Chamber music shows analogy
with correct drawing and good com-
position, the absence of which cannot
be atoned for by the most gorgeous
coloring. In no other style is sym-
pathy between performers and listeners
so necessary, and for that reason Cham-
ber music should always be heard in a
small room with performers and listen-
ers joined in angelic wedlock. Com-
munities in which it flourishes under
such conditions are musical.

Properly speaking, the term Pro-
gramme music ought to be applied on-
ly to instrumental compositions which
make a frank effort to depict scenes,
incidents, or emotional processes to
which the composer himself gives the
clew either by means of a descriptive
title or a verbal motto. It is unfortu-
nate that the term has come to be loose-
ly used. In a high sense the purest
and best music in the world is program-
matic, its programme being, as I have
said, that "high ideal of goodness,

The Content and Kinds of Music

truthfulness, and beauty" which is the
content of all true art. But the origin
of the term was vulgar, and the most
contemptible piece of tonal imitation
now claims kinship in the popular mind
with the exquisitely poetical creations
of Schumann and the " Pastoral " sym-
phony of Beethoven ; and so it is be-
come necessary to defend it in the case
of noble compositions. A programme
is not necessarily, as Ambros asserts, a
certificate of poverty and an admission
on the part of the composer that his art
has got beyond its natural bounds.
Whether it be merely a suggestive title,
as in the case of some of the composi-
tions of Beethoven, Schumann, and Men-
delssohn, or an extended commentary,
as in the symphonic poems of Liszt
and the symphonies of Berlioz and Raff,
the programme has a distinct value to
the composer as well as the hearer. It
can make the perceptive sense more im-
pressible to the influence of the music ;
it can quicken the fancy, and fire the
imagination ; it can prevent a gross mis-
conception of the intentions of a com-
poser and the character of his composi-

49

CHAP.
III.

The value
of super-
scriptions.

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.
in.

The rule
of judg-
ment.

Kinds
of Pro-
gramme
music.

tion. Nevertheless, in determining the
artistic value of the work, the question
goes not to the ingenuity of the pro-
gramme or the clearness with which its
suggestions have been carried out, but
to the beauty of the music itself irre-
spective of the verbal commentary ac-
companying it. This rule must be
maintained in order to prevent a deg-
radation of the object of musical ex-
pression. The vile, the ugly, the pain-
ful are not fit subjects for music ; music
renounces, contravenes, negatives itself
when it attempts their delineation.

A classification of Programme music
might be made on these lines :

I. Descriptive pieces which rest on
imitation or suggestion of natural
sounds.

II. Pieces whose contents are purely
musical, but the mood of which is sug-
gested by a poetical title.

III. Pieces in which the influence
which determined their form and de-
velopment is indicated not only by a
title but also by a motto which is relied
upon to mark out a train of thought for
the listener which' will bring his fancy

The Content and Kinds of Music

into union with that of the composer.
The motto may be verbal or pictorial.

IV. Symphonies or other composite
works which have a title to indicate
their general character, supplemented
by explanatory superscriptions for each
portion.

The first of these divisions rests upon
the employment of the lowest form of
conventional musical idiom. The ma-
terial which the natural world provides
for imitation by the musician is exceed-
ingly scant. Unless we descend to
mere noise, as in the descriptions of
storms and battles (the shrieking of
the wind, the crashing of thunder, and
the roar of artillery invaluable aids to
the cheap descriptive writer), we have
little else than the calls of a few birds.
Nearly thirty years ago Wilhelm Tap-
pert wrote an essay which he called
" Zooplastik in Tonen." He ransacked
the musical literature of centuries, but
in all his examples the only animals the
voices of which are unmistakable are
four fowls the cuckoo, quail (that is
the German bird, not the American,
which has a different call), the cock, and

5>

CHAP.
III.

Imitation
of natural
sounds.

CHAP.
III.

The night-
ingale.

The cat.

The cuckoo

How to Listen to Music

the hen. He has many descriptive
sounds which suggest other birds and
beasts, but only by association of idea ;
separated from title or text they sug-
gest merely what they are musical
phrases. A reiteration of the rhythmi-
cal figure called the " Scotch snap,"
breaking gradually into a trill, is the
common symbol of the nightingale's
song, but it is not a copy of that song ;
three or four tones descending chromat-
ically are given as the cat's mew, but
they are made to be such only by plac-
ing the syllables Mi-au (taken from the
vocabulary of the German cat) under
them. Instances of this kind might
be called characterization, or descrip-
tion by suggestion, and some of the
best composers have made use of them,
as will appear in these pages presently.
The list being so small, and the lesson
taught so large, it may be well to give a
few striking instances of absolutely im-
itative music. The first bird to collabo-
rate with a composer seems to have
been the cuckoo, whose notes

Cock - oo !

The Content and Kinds of Music

had sounded in many a folk-song- ere
Beethoven thought of enlisting the lit-
tle solo performer in his " Pastoral "
symphony. It is to be borne in mind,
however, as a fact having some bearing
on the artistic value of Programme
music, that Beethoven's cuckoo changes
his note to please the musician, and, in-
stead of singing a minor third, he sings
a major third thus :

Cuck - oo !

As long ago as 1688 Jacob Walter
wrote a musical piece entitled " Gallina
et Gallo," in which the hen was delin-
eated in this theme :

a. Oallina. x x~

II* | y

-& ug r

while the cock had the upper voice in
the following example, his clear chal-
lenge sounding above the cackling of
his mate :

53

CHAP.
III.

Cock
and hen.

54

CHAP.
III.

The quail.

How to Listen to Music

Gatto.

The most effective use yet made of
the song of the hen, however, is in " La
Poule," one of Rameau's " Pieces de
Clavecin," printed in 1736, a delightful
composition with this subject :

Co co co co co co codai, etc.

The quail's song is merely a mono-
tonic rhythmical figure to which Ger-
man fancy has fitted words of pious ad-
monition :

y

Furch-te Gott!

Lo - be Gott!

The paucity of examples in this de-
partment is a demonstration of the state-

The Content and Kinds- of Music

ment made elsewhere that nature does
not provide music with models for imi-
tation as it does painting and sculpture.
The fact that, nevertheless, we have
come to recognize a large number of
idioms based on association of ideas
stands the composer in good stead
whenever he ventures into the domain
of delineative or descriptive music, and
this he can do without becoming crudely
imitative. Repeated experiences have
taught us to recognize resemblances
between sequences or combinations of
tones and things or ideas, and on these
analogies, even though they be purely
conventional (that is agreed upon, as
we have agreed that a nod of the head
shall convey assent, a shake of the head
dissent, and a shrug of the shoulders
doubt or indifference), the composers
have built up a voluminous vocabulary
of idioms which need only to be helped
out by a suggestion to the mind to be
eloquently illustrative. " Sometimes
hearing a melody or harmony arouses
an emotion like that aroused by the con-
templation of a thing. Minor harmo-
nies, slow movements, dark tonal col-

55

CHAP.
III.

Conven-
tional
idioms.

Associa-
tion of
ideas.

CHAP.
III.

Fancy and
imagina-
tion.

How to Listen to Music

orings, combine directly to put a mu-
sically susceptible person in a mood con-
genial to thoughts of sorrow and death ;
and, inversely, the experience of sor-
row, or the contemplation of death, cre-
ates affinity for minor harmonies, slow
movements, and dark tonal colorings.
Or we recognize attributes in music
possessed also by things, and we consort
the music and the things, external attri-
butes bringing descriptive music into
play, which excites the fancy, internal
attributes calling for an exercise of the
loftier faculty, imagination, to discern
their meaning." * The latter kind is
delineative music of the higher order,
the kind that I have called idealized
programme music, for it is the imag-
ination which, as Ruskin has said, " sees
the heart and inner nature and makes
them felt, but is often obscure, mysteri-
ous, and interrupted in its giving out of
outer detail," which is " a seer in the
prophetic sense, calling the things that
are not as though they were, and for-
ever delighting to dwell on that which

* " Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," p. 22.

The Content and Kinds of Music

is not tangibly present." In this kind
of music, harmony, the real seat of emo-
tionality in musi~, is an eloquent factor,
and, indeed, there is no greater mystery
in the art, which is full of mystery, than
the fact that the lowering of the second
tone in the chord, which is the starting-
point of harmony, should change an ex-
pression of satisfaction, energetic action,
or jubilation into an accent of pain or
sorrow. The major mode is " to do,"
the minor, " to suffer : "

Hur -rah!

las!

How near a large number of sugges-
tions, which are based wholly upon ex-
perience or association of ideas, lie to
the popular fancy, might be illustrated
by scores of examples. Thoughts of re-
ligious functions arise in us the moment
we hear the trombones intone a solemn
phrase in full harmony; an oboe melody
in sixth-eighth time over a drone bass
brings up a pastoral picture of a shep-
herd playing upon his pipe ; trumpets
and drums suggest war, and so on. The

57

CHAP.
III.

Harmony
and emo-f
tionality.

Major
and minor.

CHAP.
III.

Music and
movement.

Handel's
frogs.

How to Listen to Music

delineation of movement is easier to the
musician than it is to the poet. Handel,
who has conveyed the sensation of a
" darkness which might be felt," in a
chorus of his " Israel in Egypt," by
means which appeal solely to the im-
agination stirred by feelings, has in the
same work pictured the plague of frogs
with a frank naiveti which almost up-
sets our seriousness of demeanor, by
suggesting the characteristic movement
of the creatures in the instrumental ac-
companiment to the arioso, " Their land
brought forth frogs/* which begins
thus:

Andante. JK.

fi[\v b V = ^ ^ ** j a *

i r * * f -

r i I

$=3=F=
1 X *

-ft-
=1

etc.

We find the gentle flux and reflux of
water as if it were lapping a rocky
shore in the exquisite figure out of

The Content and Kinds of Music

59

which Mendelssohn constructed his
" Hebrides " overture :

Alleqro moderate. ^ ^

f^rp-i C~* r r *" -\trr~* -^R

CHAP.
III.

The move-
ment of
water.

High,
and low.

* JLj f J n * i CL< |* J 1
P

gpiP-^ ~ \ *> -^

^^^^ _ ^ _ _j

and in fancy we ride on mighty surges
when we listen to the principal subject
of Rubinstein's " Ocean " symphony :

fl j4-^ ^.^J.^J

fei^-J^ 3_ 1 , | |_^j^=3 = ^g p> |
tJ "" 3^~- ^mp "" 3 fl

In none of these instances can the com-
poser be said to be imitative. Music
cannot copy water, but it can do what
water does, and so suggest water.
Some of the most common devices of
composers are based on conceptions that
are wholly arbitrary. A musical tone
cannot have position in space such as is
indicated by high or low, yet so famil-
iar is the association of acuteness of
pitch with height, and gravity of pitch
with depth, that composers continually

6o

CHAP.
III.

Ascent, de-
scent, and
distance
delineated.

How to Listen to Music

delineate high things with acute tones
and low things with grave tones, as wit-
ness Handel in one of the choruses of
" The Messiah : "

Glo-ry to God in the highest,

and peace on earth.

Similarly, tdb, does Beethoven de-
scribe the ascent into heaven and the de-
scent into hell in the Credo of his mass
in D. Beethoven's music, indeed, is
full of tone-painting, and because it ex-
emplifies a double device I make room
for one more illustration. It is from
the cantata " Becalmed at Sea, and a
Prosperous Voyage," and in it the com-
poser pictures the immensity of the sea
by a sudden, extraordinary spreading
out of his harmonies, which is musical,
and dwelling a long time on the word
" distance " (Weite), which is rhetorical:

: . ^.'~^ ^ Jl

?t

t r r/

In der un-ge-heu 'reu Wei

dim.

m

The Content and Kinds of Music

The extent to which tone-painting
is justified is a question which might
profitably concern us ; but such a dis-
cussion as it deserves would far exceed
the limits set for this book, and must be
foregone. It cannot be too forcibly
urged, however, as an aid to the listener,
that efforts at musical cartooning have
never been made by true composers, and
that in the degree that music attempts
simply to copy external things it falls
in the scale of artistic truthfulness and
value. Vocal music tolerates more of
the descriptive element than instrumen-
tal because it is a mixed art ; in it the
purpose of music is to illustrate the
poetry and, by intensifying the appeal
to the fancy, to warm the emotions.
Every piece of vocal music, moreover,
carries its explanatory programme in its
words. Still more tolerable and even
righteous is it in the opera where it is
but one of several factors which labor
together to make up the sum of dra-
matic representation. But it must ever
remain valueless unless it be idealized.
Mendelssohn, desiring to put Bully Bot-
tom into the overture to " A Midsummer

6l

CHAP.
III.

Bald imi-
tation bad
art.

Vocal mu-
sic and de-
lineation.

62

CHAP.
III.

Beethoven's
canon.

The " Pas-
toral"
symphony.

How to Listen to Music

Night's Dream/' did not hesitate to use
tones which suggest the bray of a don-
key, yet the effect, like Handel's frogs
and flies in " Israel," is one of absolute
musical value. The canon which ought
continually to be before the mind of the
listener is that which Beethoven laid
down with most painstaking care when
he wrote the " Pastoral " symphony.
Desiring to inform the listeners what
were the images which inspired the va-
rious movements (in order, of course,
that they might the better enter into the
work by recalling them), he gave each
part a superscription thus :

I. " The agreeable and cheerful sensations awa-
kened by arrival in the country,

II. " Scene by the brook."

III. " A merrymaking of the country folk."

IV. "Thunder-storm."

V. " Shepherds' song feelings of charity com-
bined with gratitude to the Deity after the storm."

In the title itself he included an ad-
monitory explanation which should have
everlasting validity : " Pastoral Sym-
phony ; more expression of feeling than
painting." How seriously he thought

The Content and Kinds of Music

63

on the subject we know from his sketch-

CHAP.

books, in which occur a number of notes,

III.

some of which were evidently hints for

superscriptions, some records of his

convictions on the subject of descriptive

music. The notes are reprinted in Not-

tebohm's " Zweite Beethoveniana," but

I borrow Sir George Grove's transla-

tion:

" The hearers should be allowed to discover the

Beethoven's

notes on

situations."

descriptive

" Sinfonia caracteristica, or a recollection of coun-

music.

try life."

"All painting in instrumental music, if pushed

too far, is a failure."

" Sinfonia pastorella. Anyone who has an idea

of country life can make out for himself the inten-

tions of the author without many titles."

" People will not require titles to recognize the

general intention to be more a matter of feeling

than of painting in sounds."

" Pastoral symphony : No picture, but something

in which the emotions are expressed which are

aroused in men by the pleasure of the country

(or), in which some feelings of country life are set

forth."*

* " Beethoven and His Nine Symphonies," by George

Grove, C.B., 2d ed., p. 191.

6 4

CHAP.
III.

Classic and
Romantic.

How to Listen to Music

As to the relation of programme to
music Schumann laid down an admi-
rable maxim when he said that while
good music was not harmed by a de-
scriptive title it was a bad indication if
a composition needed one.

There are, among all the terms used
in music, no words of vaguer meaning
than Classic and Romantic. The idea
which they convey most widely in con-
junction is that of antithesis. When the
Romantic School of composers is dis-
cussed it is almost universally presented
as something opposed in character to
the Classical School. There is little
harm in this if we but bear in mind that
all the terms which have come into use
to describe different phases of musical
development are entirely artificial and
arbitrary that they do not stand for
anything absolute, but only serve as
platforms of observation. If the terms
had a fixed meaning we ought to be
able, since they have established them-
selves in the language of history and
criticism, to describe unambiguously
and define clearly the boundary which
separates them. This, however, is im-

The Content and Kinds of Music

possible. Each generation, nay, each
decade, fixes the meaning of the words
for itself and decides what works shall
go into each category. It ought to be
possible to discover a principle, a touch-
stone, which shall emancipate us from
the mischievous and misleading notions
that have so long prompted men to
make the partitions between the schools
out of dates and names.

The terms were borrowed from liter-
ary criticism ; but even there, in the
words of Archbishop Trench, "they
either say nothing at all or say some-
thing erroneous." Classical has more to
defend it than Romantic, because it has
greater antiquity and, in one sense, has
been used with less arbitrariness.

" The term," says Trench, " is drawn from the
political economy of Rome. Such a man was rated
as to his income in the third class, such another in
the fourth, and so on, and he who was in the high-
est was emphatically said to be of the class, classi-
cus, a class man, without adding the number as in
that case superfluous ; while all others were infra
classem. Hence by an obvious analogy the best
authors were rated as classtcz, or men of the high-
est class ; just as in English we say 4 men of rank '

CHAP.
III.

Trench's
definition
of ' ' classi-
cal."

66

CHAP.
III.

Romantic
in litera-
ture.

How to Listen to Music

absolutely for men who are in the highest ranks of
the State."

Thus Trench, and his historical defi-
nition, explains why in music also there
is something more than a lurking sug-
gestion of excellence in the conception
of " classical ; " but that fact does not
put away the quarrel which we feel
exists between Classic and Romantic.

As applied to literature Romantic
was an adjective affected by certain
poets, first in Germany, then in France,
who wished to introduce a style of
thought and expression different from
that of those who followed old models.
Intrinsically, of course, the term does
not imply any such opposition but only
bears witness to the source from which
the poets drew their inspiration. This
was the imaginative literature of the
Middle Ages, the fantastical stories of
chivalry and knighthood written in the
Romance, or Romanic languages, such
as Italian, Spanish, and Provencal. The
principal elements of these stories were
the marvellous and the supernatural.
The composers whose names first spring

The Content and Kinds of Music

into our minds when we think of the
Romantic School are men like Mendels-
sohn and Schumann, who drew much of
their inspiration from the young writers
of their time who were making war on
stilted rhetoric and conventionalism of
phrase. Schumann touches hands with
the Romantic poets in their strivings in
two directions. His artistic conduct,
especially in his early years, is inex-
plicable if Jean Paul be omitted from
the equation. His music rebels against
the formalism which had held despotic
sway over the art, and also seeks to dis-
close the beauty which lies buried in the
world of mystery in and around us, and
give expression to the multitude of emo-
tions to which unyielding formalism
had refused adequate utterance. This,
I think, is the chief element of Roman-
ticism. Another has more of an exter-
nal nature and genesis, and this we find
in the works of such composers as Von
Weber, who is Romantic chiefly in his
operas, because of the supernaturalism
and chivalry in their stories, and Men-
delssohn, who, while distinctly Roman-
tic in many of his strivings, was yet so

6 7

CHAP.
III.

Schumann
and Jean
Paul.

Weber's
operas.

Mendels-
sohn.

68

CHAP.
III.

A defini-
tion of
" Classi-
cal" in

The crea-
tive and
conserva-
tive prin-
ciples.

How to Listen to Music

great a master of form, and so attached
to it, that the Romantic side of him was
not fully developed.

If I were to attempt a definition it
would be this : Classical composers are
those of the first rank (to this extent we
yield to the ancient Roman conception)
who have developed music to the high-
est pitch of perfection on its formal side
and, in obedience to generally accepted
laws, preferring aesthetic beauty, pure
and simple, over emotional content, or,
at any rate, refusing to sacrifice form
to characteristic expression. Romantic
composers are those who have sought
their ideals in other regions and striven
to give expression to them irrespective
of the restrictions and limitations of
form and the conventions of law com-
posers with whom, in brief, content out-
weighs manner. This definition pre-
sents Classicism as the regulative and
conservative principle in the history of
the art, and Romanticism as the pro-
gressive, regenerative, and creative
principle. It is easy to see how the no-
tion of contest between them grew up,
and the only harm which can come from

The Content and Kinds of Music

such a notion will ensue only if we shut
our eyes to the fact that it is a contest
between two elements whose very op-
position stimulates life, and whose union,
perfect, peaceful, mutually supplement-
al, is found in every really great art-
work. No law which fixes, and hence
limits, form, can remain valid forever.
Its end is served when it enforces it-
self long enough to keep lawlessness in
check till the test of time has deter-
mined what is sound, sweet, and whole-
some in the innovations which are
always crowding eagerly into every
creative activity in art and science. In
art it is ever true, as Faust concludes,
that " In the beginning was the deed."
The laws of composition are the prod-
ucts of compositions; and, being such,
they cannot remain unalterable so long
as the impulse freshly to create remains.
All great men are ahead of their time,
and in all great music, no matter when
written, you shall find instances of pro-
founder meaning and deeper or newer
feeling than marked the generality of
contemporary compositions. So Bach
frequently floods his formal utterances

CHAP.
III.

Musical
laws of ne-
cessity pro-
gressive.

Bach and
Romanti-
cism.

7 o

CHAP.
III.

Creation
and con-
servation.

How to Listen to Music

with Romantic feeling, and the face of
Beethoven, serving at the altar in the
temple of Beauty, is transfigured for us
by divine light. The principles of crea-
tion and conservation move onward to-
gether, and what is Romantic to-day be-
comes Classic to-morrow. Romanticism
is fluid Classicism. It is the emotional
stimulus informing Romanticism which
calls music into life, but no sooner is it
born, free, untrammelled, nature's child,
than the regulative principle places
shackles upon it ; but it is enslaved only
that it may become and remain art.

7 1

IV

The Modern Orchestra

THE most eloquent, potent, and capa-
ble instrument of music in the
world is the modern orchestra. It is
the instrument whose employment by
the classical composers and the geniuses
of the Romantic School in the middle
of our century marks the high tide of
the musical art. It is an instrument,
moreover, which is never played upon
without giving a great object-lesson in
musical analysis, without inviting the
eye to help the ear to discern the cause
of the sounds which ravish our senses
and stir up pleasurable emotions. Yet
the popular knowledge of its constituent
parts, of the individual value and mission
of the factors which go to make up its
sum, is scarcely greater than the popu-
lar knowledge of the structure of a sym-

The orches-
tra as an
instrument.

CHAP.
IV.

What may
be heard
from a
band.

How to Listen to Music

phony or sonata. All this is the more
deplorable since at least a rudimentary
knowledge of these things might easily
be gained, and in gaining it the student
would find a unique intellectual enjoy-
ment, and have his ears unconscious-
ly opened to a thousand beauties in
the music never perceived before. He
would learn, for instance, to distinguish
the characteristic timbre of each of the
instruments in the band ; and after that
to the delight found in what may be
called the primary colors he would add
that which comes from analyzing the
vast number of tints which are the prod-
ucts of combination. Noting the ca-
pacity of the various instruments and
the manner in which they are employed,
he would get glimpses into the mental
workshop of the composer. He would
discover that there are conventional
means of expression in his art analogous
to those in the other arts ; and collating
his methods with the effects produced,
he would learn something of the crea-
tive artist's purposes. He would find
that while his merely sensuous enjoy-
ment would be left unimpaired, and the

The Modern Orchestra

emotional excitement which is a legiti-
mate fruit of musical performance un-
checked, these pleasures would have
others consorted with them. His intel-
lectual faculties would be agreeably
excited, and he would enjoy the pleas-
ures of memory, which are exemplified
in music more delightfully and more
frequently than in any other art, be-
cause of the rdle which repetition of
parts plays in musical composition.

The argument is as valid in the study
of musical forms as in the study of the
orchestra, but it is the latter that is
our particular business in this chapter.
Everybody listening to an orchestral
concert recognizes the physical forms
of the violins, flutes, cornets, and big
drum ; but even of these familiar instru-
ments the voices are not always recog-
nized. As for the rest of the harmoni-
ous fraternity, few give heed to them,
even while enjoying the music which
they produce; yet with a few words
of direction anybody can study the in-
struments of the band at an orchestral
concert. Let him first recognize the
fact that to the mind of a composer an

73

CHAP.
IV.

Familiar
instru-
ments.

74

CHAP.
IV.

The in-
strumental
choirs.

How to Listen to Music

orchestra always presents itself as a
combination of four groups of instru-
ments choirs, let us call them, with un-
willing apology to the lexicographers.
These choirs are : first, the viols of four
sorts violins, violas, violoncellos, and
double-basses, spoken of collectively as
the " string quartet ; " second, the wind
instruments of wood (the " wood-winds "
in the musician's jargon) flutes, oboes,
clarinets, and bassoons ; third, the wind
instruments of brass (the " brass")
trumpets, horns, trombones, and bass
tuba. In all of these subdivisions there
are numerous variations which need not
detain us now. A further subdivision
might be made in each with reference
to the harmony voices (showing an anal-
ogy with the four voices of a vocal
choir soprano, contralto, tenor, and
bass) ; but to go into this might make
the exposition confusing. The fourth
" choir " (here the apology to the lexi-
cographers must be repeated with much
humility and earnestness) consists of the
instruments of percussion the kettle-
drums, big drum, cymbals, triangle, bell
chime, etc. (sometimes spoken of collec-

^~2

W#c
V^X^o/X <rf,

oO\

f ffl^YJ 1

t ~Jfi2i| ^ '-nH 9

The Modern Orchestra

lively in the United States as " the bat-
tery").

The disposition of these instruments
in our orchestras is largely a matter of
individual taste and judgment in the
conductor, though the general rule is
exemplified in the plan given herewith,
showing how Mr. Anton Seidl has ar-
ranged the desks for the concerts of
the Philharmonic Society of New York.
Mr. Theodore Thomas's arrangement
differed very little from that of Mr.
Seidl, the most noticeable difference
being that he placed the viola-players
beside the second violinists, where Mr.
Seidl has the violoncellists. Mr. Seidl's
purpose in making the change was to
gain an increase in sonority for the vio-
la part, the position to the right of the
stage (the left of the audience) enabling
the viola-players to hold their instru-
ments with the F-holes toward the lis-
teners instead of away from them. The
relative positions of the harmonious bat-
talions, as a rule, are as shown in the
diagram. In the foreground, the vio-
lins, violas, and 'cellos ; in the middle
distance, the wood-winds ; in the back-

77

CHAP.
IV.

chestras
are seated.

Plan of the
New York
Philhar-
monic.

CHAP.
IV.

Selo in-
struments.

How to Listen to Music

ground, tie brass and the battery ; the
double-basses flanking the whole body.
This distribution of forces is dictated
by considerations of sonority, the most
assertive instruments the brass and
drums being placed farthest from the
hearers, and the instruments of the viol
tribe, which are the real backbone of
the band and make their effect by a
massing of voices in each part, having
the place of honor and greatest advan-
tage. Of course it is understood that I
am speaking of a concert orchestra. In
the case of theatrical or operatic bands
the arrangement of the forces is de-
pendent largely upon the exigencies of
space.

Outside the strings the instruments
are treated by composers as solo instru-
ments, a single flute, oboe, clarinet, or
other wind instrument sometimes do-
ing the same work in the development
of the composition as the entire body of
first violins. As a rule, the wood-winds
are used in pairs, the purpose of this
being either to fill the harmony when
what I may call the principal thought
of the composition is consigned to a

The Modern Orchestra

particular choir, or to strengthen a
voice by permitting two instruments
to play in unison.

Each choir, except the percussion in-
struments, is capable of playing in full
harmony ; and this effect is frequently
used by composers. In " Lohengrin,"
which for that reason affords to the am-
ateur an admirable opportunity for or-
chestral study, Wagner resorts to this
device in some instances for the sake
of dramatic characterization. Elsa, a
dreamy, melancholy maiden, crushed
under the weight of wrongful accusa-
tion, and sustained only by the vision
of a seraphic champion sent by Heaven
to espouse her cause, is accompanied on
her entrance and sustained all through
her scene of trial by the dulcet tones of
the wood-winds, the oboe most often
carrying the melody. Lohengrin's su-
perterrestrial character as a Knight of
the Holy Grail is prefigured in the har-
monies which seem to stream from the
violins, and in the prelude tell of the
bringing of the sacred vessel of Christ's
passion to Monsalvat ; but in his chival-
ric character he is greeted by the mili-

79

CHAP.
IV.

Groupings
for har-
mony ef-
fects.

Wagner s
instrumen-
tal charac-
terization.

8o

CHAP.
IV.

An instru-
mental
language.

Number

of

ments

How to Listen to Music

tant trumpets in a strain of brilliant
puissance and rhythmic energy. Com-
posers have studied the voices of the
instruments so long and well, and have
noted the kind of melodies and harmo-
nies in which the voices are most effec-
tive, that they have formulated what
might almost be called an instrumental
language. Though the effective capac-
ity of each instrument is restricted not
only by its mechanics, but also by the
quality of its tones a melody conceived
for one instrument sometimes becoming
utterly inexpressive and unbeautiful by
transferrence to another the range of
effects is extended almost to infinity by
means of combination, or, as a painter
might say, by mixing the colors. The
art of writing effectively for instru
ments in combination is the art of in-
strumentation or orchestration, in which
Berlioz and Wagner were Past Grand
Masters.

The number of instruments of each
kind in an orchestra may also be said to
depend measurably upon the music, or
the use to which the band is to be put.
Neither in instruments nor in numbers

The Modern Orchestra

is there absolute identity between a
dramatic and a symphonic orchestra.
The apparatus of the former is general-
ly much more varied and complex, be-
cause of the vast development of variety
in dramatic expression stimulated by
Wagner.

The modern symphony, especially
the symphonic poem, shows the influ-
ence of this dramatic tendency, but
not in the same degree. A comparison
between model bands in each depart-
ment will disclose what is called the
normal orchestral organization. For
the comparison (see page 82), I select
the bands of the first Wagner Festival
held in Bayreuth in 1876, the Philhar-
monic Society of New York, the Bos-
ton Symphony Orchestra, and the Chi-
cago Symphony Orchestra.

Instruments like the corno di bas-
setto, bass trumpet, tenor tuba, contra-
bass tuba, and contra-bass trombone are
so seldom called for in the music played
by concert orchestras that they have no
place in their regular lists. They are
employed when needed, however, and
the horns and other instruments are

8i

CHAP.
IV.

Symphony
and dra-
matic or-
chestras.

Instru-
ments
rarely
used.

82

CHAP.
IV.

Orchestras
compared.

Tht string
quartet.

How to Listen to Music

multiplied when desirable effects are to
be obtained by such means.

Instruments.

Bayreuth.

New York
Philhar-
monic.

Boston.

O

First violins

16

18

16

16

Second violins

16

18

14

16

Violas

12

14

10

10

Violoncellos

12

14

8

10

Double-basses

8

14

8

O

Flutes

3

3

3

3

Oboes

7

7

2

3

English horn

i

I

I

i

Clarinets

7

7

7

3

Basset-horn

i

O

O

Bassoons ....

7

7

7

7

Trumpets or cornets. . .
Horns

3

4

4
4

4
4

Trombones

7

7

7

7

Bass trumpet

I

O

O

I

Tenor tubas

2

2

4

Bass tubas

2

I

2

i

Contra-bass tuba ....

I

O

I

o

Contra-bass trombone . .
Tympani (pairs)

I
2

2

2

i

2

Bass drum

I

I

I

I

Cymbals (pairs) .......

I

I

I

I

Harps

6

I

I

2

The string quartet, it will be seen,
makes up nearly three-fourths of a well-
balanced orchestra. It is the only choir
which has numerous representation of

The Modern Orchestra

its constituent units. This was not al-
ways so, but is the fruit of development
in the art of instrumentation which is
the newest department in music. Vocal
music had reached its highest point be-
fore instrumental music made a begin-
ning as an art. The former was the
pampered child of the Church, the lat-
ter was long an outlaw. As late as the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in-
strumentalists were vagabonds in law,
like strolling players. They had none
of the rights of citizenship; the relig-
ious sacraments were denied them ;
their children were not permitted to in-
herit property or learn an honorable
trade ; and after death the property for
which they had toiled escheated to
the crown. After the instruments had
achieved the privilege of artistic utter-
ance, they were for a long time mere
slavish imitators of the human voice.
Bach treated them with an insight into
their possibilities which was far in ad-
vance of his time, for which reason he
is the most modern composer of the
first half of the eighteenth century ; but
even in Handel's case the rule was to

CHAP.
IV.'

Old laws
against
instrumen-
talists.

Early in-
strumenta-
tion.

CHAP.
IV.

Handel's
orchestra.

The mod-
em band.

How to Listen to Music

treat them chiefly as supports for the
voices. He multiplied them just as he
did the voices in his choruses, consort-
ing- a choir of oboes and bassoons, and
another of trumpets of almost equal
numbers with his violins.

The so-called purists in England talk
a great deal about restoring Handel's
orchestra in performances of his orato-
rios, utterly unmindful of the fact that
to our ears, accustomed to the myriad-
hued orchestra of to-day, the effect
would seem opaque, heavy, unbalanced,
and without charm were a band of
oboes to play in unison with the vio-
lins, another of bassoons to double the
'cellos, and half a dozen trumpets to
come flaring and crashing into the mu-
sical mass at intervals. Gluck in the
opera, and Haydn and Mozart in the
symphony, first disclosed the charm of
the modern orchestra with the wind in-
struments apportioned to the strings so
as to obtain the multitude of tonal tints
which we admire to-day. On the lines
which they marked out the progress
has been exceedingly rapid and far-
reaching.

The Modern Orchestra

In the hands of the latter-day Ro-
mantic composers, and with the help
of the instrument-makers, who have
marvellously increased the capacity of
the wind instruments, and remedied
the deficiencies which embarrassed the
Classical writers, the orchestra has de-
veloped into an instrument such as
never entered the mind of the wildest
dreamer of the last century. Its range
of expression is almost infinite. It can
strike like a thunder-bolt, or murmur
like a zephyr. Its voices are multitu-
dinous. Its register is coextensive in
theory with that of the modern piano-
forte, reaching from the space immedi-
ately below the sixth added line under
the bass staff to the ninth added line
above the treble staff. These two ex-
tremes, which belong respectively to
the bass tuba and piccolo flute, are not
at the command of every player, but
they are within the capacity of the in-
struments, and mark the orchestra's
boundaries in respect of pitch. The
gravest note is almost as deep as any in
which the ordinary human ear can de-
tect pitch, and the acutest reaches the

CHAP.
IV.

Capacity
of the
orchestra.

The ex-
tremes
of range.

86

CHAP.
IV.

The viols.

How to Listen to Music

same extremity in the opposite direc-
tion.

With all the changes that have come
over the orchestra in the course of the
last two hundred years, the string quar-
tet has remained its chief factor. Its
voice cannot grow monotonous or cloy-
ing, for, besides its innate qualities, it
commands a more varied manner of ex-
pression than all the other instruments
combined. The viol, which term I shall
use generically to indicate all the in-
struments of the quartet, is the only
instrument in the band, except the harp,
that can play harmony as well as mel-
ody. Its range is the most extensive ;
it is more responsive to changes in ma-
nipulation ; it is endowed more richly
than any other instrument with varie-
ties of timbre ; it has an incomparable
facility of execution, and answers more
quickly and more eloquently than any
of its companions to the feelings of the
player. A great advantage which the
viol possesses over wind instruments
is that, not being dependent on the
breath of the player, there is practically
no limit to its ability to sustain tones.

The Modern Orchestra

It is because of this long list of good
qualities that it is relied on to provide
the staff of life to instrumental music.
The strings as commonly used show
four members of the viol family, distin-
guished among themselves by their
size, and the quality in the changes of
tone which grows out of the differences
in size. The violins (Appendix, Plate I.)
are the smallest members of the family.
Historically they are the culmination of
a development toward diminutiveness,
for in their early days viols were larger
than they are now. When the violin of
to-day entered the orchestra (in the score
of Monteverde's opera " Orfeo ") it was
specifically described as a " little French
violin." Its voice, Berlioz says, is the
" true female voice of the orchestra."
Generally the violin part of an orches-
tral score is two-voiced, but the two
groups may be split into a great num-
ber. In one passage in "Tristan und
Isolde " Wagner divides his first and
second violins into sixteen groups.
Such divisions, especially in the higher
regions, are productive of entrancing
effects.

CHAP.
IV.

The viilin.

88

CHAP.
IV.

Violin
effects.

Pizzicato.

How to Listen to Music

The halo of sound which streams
from the beginning and end of the
" Lohengrin " prelude is produced by
this device. High and close harmonies
from divided violins always sound ethe-
real. Besides their native tone quality
(that resulting from a string stretched
over a sounding shell set to vibrating
by friction), the violins have a number
of modified qualities resulting from
changes in manipulation. Sometimes
the strings are plucked (pizzicato), when
the result is a short tone something like
that of a banjo with the metallic clang
omitted ; very dainty effects can thus
be produced, and though it always
seems like a degradation of the instru-
ment so pre-eminently suited to a broad
singing style, no less significant a sym-
phonist than Tscha'ikowsky has writ-
ten a Scherzo in which the violins are
played pizzicato throughout the move-
ment. Ballet composers frequently re-
sort to the piquant effect, but in the
larger and more serious forms of com-
position the device is sparingly used.
Differences in quality and expressive-
ness of tone are also produced by varied

The Modern Orchestra

methods of applying the bow to the
strings : with stronger or lighter press-
ure; near the bridge, which renders
the tone hard and brilliant, and over the
end of the finger-board, which softens
it; in a continuous manner (legato), or
detached (staccato]. Weird effects in
dramatic music are sometimes pro-
duced by striking the strings with the
wood of the bow, Wagner resorting to
this means to delineate the wicked glee
of his dwarf Mime, and Meyerbeer to
heighten the uncanniness of Nelusko's
wild song in the third act of " L'Afri-
caine." Another class of effects results
from the manner in which the strings
are " stopped " by the fingers of the left
hand. When they are not pressed
firmly against the finger - board but
touched lightly at certain places called
nodes by the acousticians, so that the
segments below the finger are permitted
to vibrate along with the upper por-
tion, those peculiar tones of a flute-like
quality called harmonics or flageolet
tones are produced. These are oftener
heard in dramatic music than in sym-
phonies; but Berlioz, desiring to put

CHAP.
IV.

"Col legno
air arco"

Harmonics.

9 o

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.

IV.

Vibrato.

" Con
sordino."

Shakespeare's description of Queen
Mab,

" Her wagon-spokes made of long spinner's legs ;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web ;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams "

into music in his dramatic symphony,
" Romeo and Juliet," achieved a mar-
vellously filmy effect by dividing his
violins, and permitting some of them to
play harmonics. Yet so little was his
ingenious purpose suspected when he
first brought the symphony forward in
Paris, that one of the critics spoke con-
temptuously of this effect as sounding
" like an ill-greased syringe." A quiver-
ing motion imparted to the fingers of
the left hand in stopping the strings
produces a tremulousness of tone akin
to the vibrato of a singer ; and, like the
vocal vibrato, when not carried to ex-
cess, this effect is a potent expression
of sentimental feeling. But it is much
abused by solo players. Another modi-
fication of tone is caused by placing a
tiny instrument called a sordino, or
mute, upon the bridge. This clamps

The Modern Orchestra

9 1

the bridge, makes it heavier, and checks
the vibrations, so that the tone is muted
or muffled, and at times sounds mys-
terious.

These devices, though as a rule they
have their maximum of effectiveness ii;
the violins, are possible also on the
violas, violoncellos, and double-basses,
which, as I have already intimated, are
but violins of a larger growth. The
pizzicato is, indeed, oftenest heard from
the double-basses, where it has a much
greater eloquence than on the violins.
In music of a sombre cast, the short,
deep tones given out by the plucked
strings of the contra-bass sometimes
have the awfulness of gigantic heart-
throbs. The difficulty of producing the
other effects grows with the increase of
difficulty in handling the instruments,
this being due to the growing thickness
of the strings and the wideness of the
points at which they must be stopped.
One effect peculiar to them all the
most used of all effects, indeed, in dra-
matic music is the tremolo, produced
by dividing a tone into many quickly
reiterated short tones by a rapid motion

CHAP.
IV.

Pizzicato
on the
basses.

Tremolo.

9 2

CHAP.
IV.

The viola.

How to Listen to Music

of the bow. This device came into use
with one of the earliest pieces of dra-
matic music. It is two centuries old,
and was first used to help in the mu-
sical delineation of a combat. With
scarcely an exception, the varied means
which I have described can be detected
by those to whom they are not already
familiar by watching the players while
listening to the music.

The viola is next in size to the violin,
and is tuned at the interval of a fifth
lower. Its highest string is A, which is
the second string of the violin, and its
lowest C. Its tone, which sometimes
contains a comical suggestion of a boy's
voice in mutation, is lacking in incisive-
ness and brilliancy, but for this it com-
pensates by a wonderful richness and
filling quality, and a pathetic and inimi-
table mournfulnessin melancholy music.
It blends beautifully with the violon-
cello, and is often made to double that
instrument's part for the sake of color
effect as, to cite a familiar instance, in
the principal subject of the Andante in
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The strings of the violoncello (Plate

The Modern Orchestra

II.) are tuned like those of the viola, but
an octave lower. It is the knee-fiddle
(viola da gamba) of the last century, as
the viola is the arm-fiddle (viola da brae-
do), and got its old name from the posi-
tion in which it is held by the player.
The 'cello's voice is a bass it might be
called the barytone of the choir and
in the olden time of simple writing, lit-
tle else was done with it than to double
the bass part one octave higher. But
modern composers, appreciating its
marvellous capacity for expression,
which is next to that of the violin, have
treated it with great freedom and inde-
pendence as a solo instrument. Its tone
is full of voluptuous languor. It is the
sighing lover of the instrumental com-
pany, and can speak the language of
tender passion more feelingly than any
of its fellows. The ravishing effect of a
multiplication of its voice is tellingly
exemplified in the opening of the over-
ture to " William Tell," which is written
for five solo 'celli, though it is oftenest
heard in an arrangement which gives
two of the middle parts to violas. When
Beethoven wished to produce the emo-

93

CHAP.
IV.

The violon-
cello.

Violoncello
effects.

94

CHAP.
IV.

The double-
lass.

How to Listen to Music

tional impression of a peacefully rip-
pling brook in his " Pastoral " sym-
phony, he gave a murmuring figure to
the divided violoncellos, and Wagner
uses the passionate accents of four of
these instruments playing in harmony
to support Siegmund when he is pouring
out the ecstasy of his love in the first
act of "Die Walkure." In the love
scene of Berlioz's " Romeo and Juliet "
symphony it is the violoncello which
personifies the lover, and holds con-
verse with the modest oboe.

The patriarchal double-bass is known
to all, and also its mission of providing
the foundation for the harmonic struct-
ure of orchestral music. It sounds an
octave lower than the music written for
it, being what is called a transposing
instrument of sixteen-foot tone. Solos
are seldom written for this instrument
in orchestral music, though Beethoven,
with his daring recitatives in the Ninth
Symphony, makes it a mediator between
the instrumental and vocal forces. Dra-
gonetti (1763-1846) and Bottesini (1823-
1889), two Italians, won great fame as
solo players on the unwieldy instru-

The Modern Orchestra

ment. The latter used a small bass
viol, and strung it with harp strings;
but Dragonetti played a full double-
bass, on which he could execute the
most difficult passages written for the
violoncello.

Since the instruments of the wood-
wind choir are frequently used in solos,
their acquaintance can easily be made
by an observing amateur. To this
division of the orchestra belong the
gentle accents in the instrumental lan-
guage. Violent expression is not its
province, and generally when the band
is discoursing in heroic style or giving
voice to brave or angry emotion the
wood-winds are either silent or are
used to give weight to the body of tone
rather than color. Each of the instru-
ments has a strongly characteristic
voice, which adapts itself best to a cer-
tain style of music ; but by use of dif-
ferent registers and by combinations
among them, or with the instruments of
the other choirs, a wide range of ex-
pression within the limits suggested has
been won for the wood-winds.

The flute, which requires no descrip-

95

CHAP.
IV.

The wood-
winds.

9 6

CHAP.
IV.

Theftute.

How to Listen to Music

tion, is, for instance, an essentially soul-
less instrument ; but its marvellous agil-
ity and the effectiveness with which its
tones can be blended with others make
it one of the most useful instruments
in the band. Its native character, heard
in the compositions written for it as a
solo instrument, has prevented it from
being looked upon with dignity. As a
rule, brilliancy is all that is expected
from it. It is a sort of soprano leggier o
with a small range of superficial feel-
ings. It can sentimentalize, and, as
Dryden says, be "soft, complaining,"
but when we hear it pour forth a veri-
table ecstasy of jubilation, as it does
in the dramatic climax of Beethoven's
overture " Leonore No. 3," we marvel
at the transformation effected by the
composer. Advantage has also been
taken of the difference between its high
and low tones, and now in some roman-
tic music, as in Raff's " Lenore " sym-
phony, or the prayer of Agathe in " Der
Freischiitz," the hollowness of the low
tones produces a mysterious effect that
is exceedingly striking. Still the fact
remains that the native voice of the in-

The Modern Orchestra

strument, though sweet, is expression-
less compared with that of the oboe
or clarinet. Modern composers some-
times write for three flutes ; but in the
older writers, when a third flute is used,
it is generally an octave flute, or pic-
colo flute (Plate III.) a tiny instrument
whose aggressiveness of voice is out of
all proportion to its diminutiveness of
body. This is the instrument which
shrieks and whistles when the band
is playing at storm-making, to imitate
the noise of the wind. It sounds an
octave higher than is indicated by the
notes in its part, and so is what is called
a transposing instrument of four-foot
tone. It revels in military music, which
is proper, for it is an own cousin to the
ear-piercing fife, which annually makes
up for its long silence in the noisy days
before political elections. When you
hear a composition in march time, with
bass and snare drum, cymbals and trian-
gle, such as the Germans call " Turk-
ish" or "Janizary" music, you may
be sure to hear also the piccolo flute.
The flute is doubtless one of the
oldest instruments in the world. The

97

CHAP.
IV.

The pic-
colo flute.

Janizary
music.

CHAP.
IV.

The story
of the
flute.

Reed in-
struments.

How to Listen to Music

primitive cave-dwellers made flutes of
the leg -bones of birds and other ani-
mals, an origin of which a record is pre-
served in the Latin name tibia. The
first wooden flutes were doubtless the
Pandean pipes, in which the tone was
produced by blowing across the open
ends of hollow reeds. The present
method, already known to the ancient
Egyptians, of closing the upper end,
and creating the tone by blowing
across a hole cut in the side, is only a
modification of the method pursued,
according to classic tradition, by Pan
when he breathed out his dejection at
the loss of the nymph Syrinx, by blow-
ing across the tuneful reeds which
were that nymph in her metamorphosed
state.

The flute or pipe of the Greeks and
Romans was only distantly related to
the true flute, but was the ancestor of
its orchestral companions, the oboe
and clarinet. These instruments are
sounded by being blown in at the end,
and the tone is created by vibrating
reeds, whereas in the flute it is the re-
sult of the impinging of the air on the

The Modern Orchestra

edge of the hole called the embouchure,
and the consequent stirring of the col-
umn of air in the flue of the instrument.
The reeds are thin slips or blades of
cane. The size and bore of the in-
struments and the difference between
these reeds are the causes of the
differences in tone quality between
these relatives. The oboe or hautboy,
English horn, and the bassoon have
what are called double reeds. Two
narrow blades of cane are fitted closely
together, and fastened with silk on a
small metal tube extending from the
upper end of the instrument in the case
of the oboe and English horn, from the
side in the case of the bassoon. The
reeds are pinched more or less tightly
between the lips, and are set to vibrat-
ing by the breath.

The oboe (Plate IV.) is naturally as-
sociated with music of a pastoral char-
acter. It is pre-eminently a melody in-
strument, and though its voice comes
forth shrinkingly, its uniqueness of tone
makes it easily heard. It is a most lov-
able instrument. " Candor, artless grace,
soft joy, or the grief of a fragile being

99

CHAP.
IV.

Double
reeds.

The oboe.

100

CHAP.
IV.

The Eng-
lish horn.

How to Listen to Music

suits the oboe's accents," says Berlioz.
The peculiarity of its mouth-piece gives
its tone a reedy or vibrating quality
totally unlike the clarinet's. Its natural
alto is the English horn (Plate V.), which
is an oboe of larger growth, with curved
tube for convenience of manipulation.
The tone of the English horn is fuller,
nobler, and is very attractive in mel-
ancholy or dreamy music. There are
few players on the English horn in this
country, and it might be set down as
a rule that outside of New York, Bos-
ton, and Chicago, the English horn parts
are played by the oboe in America.
No melody displays the true character
of the English horn better than the
Ranz des Vaches in the overture to Ros-
sini's " William Tell "that lovely Al-
pine song which the flute embroiders
with exquisite ornament. One of the
noblest utterances of the oboe is the
melody of the funeral march in Beet-
hoven's " Heroic " symphony, in which
its tenderness has beautiful play. It is
sometimes used effectively in imitative
music. In Haydn's " Seasons," and
also in that grotesque tone poem by

The Modern Orchestra

Saint-Saens, the " Danse Macabre," it
gives the cock crow. It is the timid
oboe that sounds the A for the orchestra
to tune by.

The grave voice of the oboe is heard
from the bassoon (Plate VI.), where,
without becoming assertive, it gains a
quality entirely unknown to the oboe
and English horn. It is this quality
that makes the bassoon the humorist
par excellence of the orchestra. It is a
reedy bass, very apt to recall to those
who have had a country education the
squalling tone of the homely instrument
which the farmer's boy fashions out of
the stems of the pumpkin-vine. The
humor of the bassoon is an unconscious
humor, and results from the use made
of its abysmally solemn voice. This
solemnity in quality is paired with as-
tonishing flexibility of utterance, so
that its gambols are always grotesque.
Brahms permits the bassoon to intone
the Fuchslied of the German students in
his " Academic " overture. Beethoven
achieves a decidedly comical effect by
a stubborn reiteration of key-note, fifth,
and octave by the bassoon under a rus-

101

CHAP.
IV.

The
bassoon.

An orches-
tral hu-
morist

102

CHAP.
IV.

Supernatu-
ral e/ects.

How to Listen to Music

tic dance intoned by the oboe in the
scherzo of his " Pastoral " symphony ;
and nearly every modern composer has
taken advantage of the instrument's
grotesqueness. Mendelssohn intro-
duces the clowns in his " Midsummer-
Night's-Dream " music by a droll dance
for two bassoons over a sustained bass
note from the violoncellos ; but when
Meyerbeer wanted a very different ef-
fect, a ghastly one indeed, in the scene
of the resuscitation of the nuns in his
" Robert le Diable," he got it by taking
two bassoons as solo instruments and
using their weak middle tones, which,
Berlioz says, have " a pale, cold, ca-
daverous sound." Singularly enough,
Handel resorted to a similar device in
his " Saul," to accompany the vision of
the Witch of Endor.

In all these cases a great deal de-
pends upon the relation between the
character of the melody and the nature
of the instrument to which it is set. A
swelling martial fanfare may be made ab-
surd by changing it from trumpets to a
weak-voiced wood-wind. It is only the
string quartet that speaks all the musical

The Modern Orchestra

languages of passion and emotion. The
double-bassoon is so large an instrument
that it has to be bent on itself to bring
it under the control of the player. It
sounds an octave lower than the written
notes. It is not brought often into the
orchestra, but speaks very much to the
purpose in Brahms's beautiful variations
on a theme by Haydn, and the glorious
finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

The clarinet (Plate VII.) is the most
eloquent member of the wood -wind
choir, and, except some of its own mod-
ifications or the modifications of the
oboe and bassoon, the latest arrival in
the harmonious company. It is only a
little more than a century old. It has
the widest range of expression of the
wood-winds, and its chief structural dif-
ference is in its mouth-piece. It has a
single flat reed, which is much wider
than that of the oboe or bassoon, and is
fastened by a metallic band and screw
to the flattened side of the mouth-piece,
whose other side is cut down, chisel
shape, for convenience. Its voice is rich,
mellow, less reedy, and much fuller and
more limpid than the voice of the oboe,

103

CHAP.
IV.

The double
bassoon.

The
clarinet.

104

CHAP.
IV.

The bass
clarinet.

Lips and
reeds.

How to Listen to Music

which Berlioz tries to describe by anal-
ogy as " sweet-sour." It is very flexible,
too, and has a range of over three and a
half octaves. Its high tones are some-
times shrieky, however, and the full
beauty of the instrument is only dis-
closed when it sings in the middle reg-
ister. Every symphony and overture
contains passages for the clarinet which
serve to display its characteristics.
Clarinets are made of different sizes for
different keys, the smallest being that
in E-flat, with an unpleasantly piercing
tone, whose use is confined to military
bands. There is also an alto clarinet
and a bass clarinet (Plate VIII.). The
bell of the latter instrument is bent
upward, pipe fashion, and its voice is
peculiarly impressive and noble. It is a
favorite solo instrument in Liszt's sym-
phonic poems.

The fundamental principle of the in-
struments last described is the produc-
tion of tone by vibrating reeds. In the
instruments of the brass choir, the duty
of the reeds is performed by the lips of
the player. Variety of tone in respect
of quality is produced by variations in

The Modern Orchestra

size, shape, and modifications in parts
like the bell and mouth-piece. The forte
of the orchestra receives the bulk of its
puissance from the brass instruments,
which, nevertheless, can give voice to
an extensive gamut of sentiments and
feelings. There is nothing more cheery
and jocund than the flourishes of the
horns, but also nothing more mild and
soothing than the songs which some-
times they sing. There is nothing more
solemn and religious than the harmony
of the trombones, while " the trumpet's
loud clangor " is the very voice of a war-
like spirit. All of these instruments have
undergone important changes within the
last few score years. The classical com-
posers, almost down to our own time,
were restricted in the use of them be-
cause they were merely natural tubes,
and their notes were limited to the
notes which inflexible tubes can produce.
Within this century, however, they have
all been transformed from imperfect
diatonic instruments to perfect chro-
matic instruments ; that is to say, every
brass instrument which is in use now
can give out all the semitones within its

105

CHAP.
IV.

The brass
instru-
ments.

Improve-
ments in
brass in-
struments.

io6

CHAP.
IV.

Valves and
slides.

The

French

horn.

How to Listen to Music

compass. This has been accomplished
through the agency of valves, by means
of which differing lengths of the sono-
rous tube are brought within the com-
mand of the players. In the case of the
trombones an exceedingly venerable
means of accomplishing the same end
is applied. The tube is in part made
double, one part sliding over the other.
By moving his arm, the player length-
ens or shortens the tube, and thus chang-
ing the key of the instrument, acquires
all the tones which can be obtained
from so many tubes of different lengths.
The mouth-pieces of the trumpet, trom-
bone, and tuba are cup -shaped, and
larger than the mouth-piece of the horn,
which is little else than a flare of the
slender tube, sufficiently wide to receive
enough of the player's lips to form the
embouchure, or human reed, as it might
here be named

The French horn (Plate IX.), as it is
called in the orchestra, is the sweetest
and mellowest of all the wind instru-
ments. In Beethoven's time it was but
little else than the old hunting-horn,
which, for the convenience of the

The Modern Orchestra

mounted hunter, was arranged in spiral
convolutions that it might be slipped
over the head and carried resting on
one shoulder and under the opposite
arm. The Germans still call it the
Waldhorn, i.e., " forest horn ; " the old
French name was cor de chasse, the
Italian corno di caccia. In this instru-
ment formerly the tones which were
not the natural resonances of the har-
monic division of the tube were helped
out by partly closing the bell with the
right hand, it having been discovered
accidentally that by putting the hand
into the lower end of the tube the flar-
ing part called the bell the pitch of a
tone was raised. Players still make use
of this method for convenience, and
sometimes because a .composer wishes
to employ the slightly muffled effect of
these tones ; but since valves have been
added to the instrument, it is possible
to play a chromatic scale in what are
called the unstopped or open tones.

Formerly it was necessary to use
horns of different pitch, and composers
still respect this tradition, and designate
the key of the horns which they wish to

107

CHAP.
IV.

Manipula-
tion oftht
French
horn.

Kinds of
horns.

io8

CHAP.
IV.

The
trumpet.

The cornet.

How to Listen to Music

have employed ; but so skilful have the
players become that, as a rule, they use
horns whose fundamental tone is F for
all keys, and achieve the old purpose
by simply transposing the music as
they read it. If these most graceful
instruments were straightened out they
would be seventeen feet long. The con-
volutions of the horn and the many turns
of the trumpet are all the fruit of neces-
sity ; they could not be manipulated to
produce the tones that are asked of
them if they were not bent and curved.
The trumpet, when its tube is length-
ened by the addition of crooks for its
lowest key, is eight feet long ; the tuba,
sixteen. In most orchestras (in all of
those in the United States, in fact, ex-
cept the Boston and Chicago Orches-
tras and the Symphony Society of New
York) the word trumpet is merely a
euphemism for cornet, the familiar lead-
ing instrument of the brass band, which,
while it falls short of the trumpet in
the quality of its tone, in the upper reg-
isters especially, is a more easily ma-
nipulated instrument than the trumpet,
and is preferable in the lower tones.

The Modern Orchestra

Mendelssohn is quoted as saying
that the trombones (Plate X.) " are too
sacred to use often." They have, in-
deed, a majesty and nobility all their
own, and the lowest use to which they
can be put is to furnish a flaring and
noisy harmony in an orchestral tutti.
They are marvellously expressive in-
struments, and without a peer in the
whole instrumental company when a
solemn and spiritually uplifting effect is
to be attained. They can also be made
to sound menacing and lugubrious, de-
vout and mocking, pompously heroic,
majestic, and lofty. They are often the
heralds of the orchestra, and make so-
norous proclamations.

The classic composers always seemed
to approach the trombones with marked
respect, but nowadays it requires a very
big blue pencil in the hands of a very un-
compromising conservatory professor to
prevent a student engaged on his Opus i
from keeping his trombones going half
the time at least. It is an old story how
Mozart keeps the instruments silent
through three-fourths of his immortal
" Don Giovanni," so that they may

109

CHAP.
IV.

The
trombone.

Trombone
effects.

110

CHAP.
IV.

The tuba.

Instru-
ments of
percussion.

How to Listen to Music

enter with overwhelming impressive-
ness along with the ghostly visitor of the
concluding scene. As a rule, there are
three trombones in the modern orches-
tra two tenors and a bass. Formerly
there were four kinds, bearing the
names of the voices to which they were
supposed to be nearest in tone-quality
and compass soprano, alto, tenor, and
bass. Full four-part harmony is now per-
formed by the three trombones and the
tuba (Plate XL). The latter instru-
ment, which, despite its gigantic size,
is exceedingly tractable can " roar you
as gently as any sucking dove." Far-
away and strangely mysterious tones
are got out of the brass instruments,
chiefly the cornet and horn, by almost
wholly closing the bell.

The percussion apparatus of the mod-
ern orchestra includes a multitude of
instruments scarcely deserving of de-
scription. Several varieties of drums,
cymbals, triangle, tambourine, steel bars
(Glockenspiel), gongs, bells, and many
other things which we are now inclined
to look upon as toys, rather than as
musical instruments, are brought into

The Modern Orchestra

play for reasons more or less fantastic.
Saint-Saens has even utilized the bar-
barous xylophone, whose proper place
is the variety hall, in his " Danse Mac-
abre." There his purpose was a fan-
tastic one, and the effect is capital. The
pictorial conceit at the bottom of the
poem which the music illustrates is
Death, as a skeleton, seated on a tomb-
stone, playing the viol, and gleefully
cracking his bony heels against the
marble. To produce this effect, the
composer uses the xylophone with capi-
tal results. But of all the ordinary in-
struments of percussion, the only one
that is really musical and deserving of
comment is the kettle-drum. This in-
strument is more musical than the
others because it has pitch. Its voice
is not mere noise, but musical noise.
Kettle-drums, or tympani, are generally
used in pairs, though the vast multipli-
cation of effects by modern composers
has resulted also in the extension of this
department of the band. It is seldom
that more than two pairs are used, a
good player with a quick ear being able
to accomplish all that Wagner asks of

111

CHAP.
IV.

The

xylophone.

Kettle-
drums.

112

CHAP.
IV.

PfuncTs

tuning

device.

How to Listen to Music

six drums by his deftness in changing
the pitch of the instruments. This
work of tuning is still performed gen-
erally in what seems a rudimentary
way, though a German drum-builder
named Pfund invented a contrivance by
which the player, by simply pressing
on a balanced pedal and watching an
indicator affixed to the side of the
drums, can change the pitch to any de-
sired semitone within the range of an
octave.

The tympani are hemispherical brass
or copper vessels, kettles in short, cov-
ered with vellum heads. The pitch of
the instrument depends on the tension
of the head, which is applied generally
by key -screws working through the
iron ring which holds the vellum.
There is a difference in the size of the
drums to place at the command of the
player the octave from F in the first
space below the bass staff to F on the
fourth line of the same staff. Formerly
the purpose of the drums was simply to
give emphasis, and they were then uni-
formly tuned to the key-note and fifth
of the key in which a composition was

The Modern Orchestra

set Now they are tuned in many ways,
not only to allow for the frequent
change of keys, but also so that they
may be used as harmony instruments.
Berlioz did more to develop the drums
than any composer who has ever lived,
though Beethoven already manifested
appreciation of their independent musi-
cal value. In the last movement of his
Eighth Symphony and the scherzo of
his Ninth, he tunes them in octaves, his
purpose in the latter case being to give
the opening figure, an octave leap, of the
scherzo melody to the drums solo. The
most extravagant use ever made of
the drums, however, was by Berlioz in
his " Messe des Morts," where he called
in eight pairs of drums and ten players
to help him to paint his tonal picture of
the terrors of the last judgment. The
post of drummer is one of the most dif-
ficult to fill in a symphonic orchestra.
He is required to have not only a per-
fect sense of time and rhythm, but also
a keen sense of pitch, for often the com-
poser asks him to change the pitch of
one or both of his drums in the space
of a very few seconds. He must then

CHAP.
IV.

Pitch of the
drums.

Qualifica-
tions of a
drummer.

CHAP.
IV.

The bass
drum.

The

conductor.

How to Listen to Music

be able to shut all other sounds out of
his mind, and bring his drums into a
new key while the orchestra is playing
an extremely nice task.

The development of modern orches-
tral music has given dignity also to the
bass drum, which, though definite pitch
is denied to it, is now manipulated in a
variety of ways productive of striking
effects. Rolls are played on it with the
sticks of the kettle-drums, and it has
been emancipated measurably from the
cymbals, which in vulgar brass -band
music are its inseparable companions.

In the full sense of the term the or-
chestral conductor is a product of the
latter half of the present century. Of
course, ever since concerted music be-
gan, there has been a musical leader of
some kind. Mural paintings and carv-
ings fashioned in Egypt long before
Apollo sang his magic song and

" Ilion, like a mist, rose into towers,"

show the conductor standing before his
band beating time by clapping his
hands ; and if we are to credit what we
have been told about Hebrew music,

The Modern Orchestra

Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, when
they stood before their multitudinous
choirs in the temple at Jerusalem, pro-
moted synchronism in the performance
by stamping upon the floor with lead-
shodden feet. Before the era which de-
veloped what I might call " star " con-
ductors, these leaders were but captains
of tens and captains of hundreds who
accomplished all that was expected of
them if they made the performers keep
musical step together. They were time-
beaters merely human metronomes.
The modern conductor is, in a sense not
dreamed of a century ago, a mediator
between the composer and the audi-
ence. He is a virtuoso who plays upon
men instead of a key -board, upon a
hundred instruments instead of one.
Music differs from her sister arts in
many respects, but in none more than
in her dependence on the intermediary
who stands between her and the people
for whose sake she exists. It is this in-
termediary who wakens her into life.

" Heard melodies arc sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter,"

CHAP.
IV.

Time-beat-
ers and in-
terpreters.

CHAP.
IV.

The con-
ductor a
necessity.

How to Listen to Music

is a pretty bit of hyperbole which in-
volves a contradiction in terms. An un-
heard melody is no melody at all, and as
soon as we have music in which a num-
ber of singers or instrumentalists are
employed, the taste, feeling, and judg-
ment of an individual are essential to its
intelligent and effective publication. In
the gentle days of the long ago, when
suavity and loveliness of utterance and
a recognition of formal symmetry were
the " be-all and end-all " of the art, a time-
beater sufficed to this end ; but now the
contents of music are greater, the vessel
has been wondrously widened, the lan-
guage is become curiously complex and
ingenious, and no composer of to-day
can write down universally intelligible
signs for all that he wishes to say.
Someone must grasp the whole, ex-
pound it to the individual factors which
make up the performing sum and pro-
vide what is called an interpretation to
the public.

That someone, of course, is the con-
ductor, and considering the progress
that music is continually making it is
not at all to be wondered at that he has

The Modern Orchestra

become a person of stupendous power
in the culture of to-day. The one singu-
larity is that he should be so rare. This
rarity has had its natural consequence,
and the conductor who can conduct, in
contradistinction to the conductor who
can only beat time, is now a " star." At
present we see him going from place
to place in Europe giving concerts in
which he figures as the principal at-
traction. The critics discuss his " read-
ings " just as they do the performances
of great pianists and singers. A hun-
dred blowers of brass, scrapers of strings,
and tootlers on windy wood, labor be-
neath him transmuting the composer's
mysterious symbols into living sound,
and when it is all over we frequently
find that it seems all to have been done
for the greater glory of the conductor
instead of the glory of art. That, how-
ever, is a digression which it is not nec-
essary to pursue.

Questions and remarks have fre-
quently been addressed to me indica-
tive of the fact that there is a wide-
spread popular conviction that the
mission of a conductor is chiefly orna-

117

CHAP.
IV.

Star "
conductors.

Mistaken

popular

notions.

CHAP.
IV.

What the
conductor
dots.

How to Listen to Music

mental at an orchestral concert. That
is a sad misconception, and grows out
of the old notion that a conductor is
only a time-beater. Assuming that the
men of the band have played sufficiently
together, it is thought that eventually
they might keep time without the help
of the conductor. It is true that the
greater part of the conductor's work is
done at rehearsal, at which he enforces
upon his men his wishes concerning the
speed of the music, expression, and the
balance of tone between the different
instruments. But all the injunctions
given at rehearsal byword of mouth are
reiterated by means of a system of signs
and signals during the concert perform-
ance. Time and rhythm are indicated
by the movements of the baton, the
former by the speed of the beats, the
latter by the direction, the tones upon
which the principal stress is to fall being
indicated by the down-beat of the bat-
on. The amplitude of the movements
also serves to indicate the conductor's
wishes concerning dynamic variations,
while the left hand is ordinarily used in
pantomimic gestures to control indi-

The Modern Orchestra

vidual players or groups. Glances and
a play of facial expression also assist in
the guidance of the instrumental body.
Every musician is expected to count the
rests which occur in his part, but when
they are of long duration (and some-
times they amount to a hundred meas-
ures or more) it is customary for the
conductor to indicate the entrance of an
instrument by a glance at the player.
From this mere outline of the communi-
cations which pass between the con-
ductor and his band it will be seen how
indispensable he is if music is to have a
consistent and vital interpretation.

The layman will perhaps also be
enabled, by observing the actions of a
conductor with a little understanding
of their purposes, to appreciate what
critics mean when they speak of the
" magnetism " of a leader. He will un-
derstand that among other things it
means the aptitude or capacity for cre-
ating a sympathetic relationship be-
tween himself and his men which en-
ables him the better by various devices,
some arbitrary, some technical and con-
ventional, to imbue them with his

119

CHAP.
IV.

Rests and
cues.

Personal
magnet-
ism.

120

CHAP.
IV.

The score.

Its ar-
rangement.

How to Listen to Music

thoughts and feelings relative to a com-
position, and through them to body
them forth to the audience.

What it is that the conductor has to
guide him while giving his mute com-
mands to his forces may be seen in the
reproduction, in the Appendix, of a page
from an orchestral score (Plate XII.).
A score, it will be observed, is a repro-
duction of all the parts of a composition
as they lie upon the desks of the players.
The ordering of these parts in the score
has not always been as now, but the
plan which has the widest and longest
approval is that illustrated in our exam-
ple. The wood-winds are grouped to-
gether on the uppermost six staves, the
brass in the middle with the tympani
separating the horns and trumpets from
the trombones, the strings on the lower-
most five staves. The example has been
chosen because it shows all the instru-
ments of the band employed at once (it
is the famous opening tutti of the tri-
umphal march of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony), and is easy of comprehen-
sion by musical amateurs for the reason
that none of the parts requires transpo-

The Modern Orchestra

sition except it be an octave up in the
case of the piccolo, an instrument of
four-foot tone, and an octave down in the
case of the double-basses, which are of
sixteen-foot tone. All the other parts are
to be read as printed, proper attention
being given to the alto and tenor clefs
used in the parts of the trombones and
violas. The ability to " read score " is
one of the most essential attributes of a
conductor, who, if he have the proper
training, can bring all the parts together
and reproduce them on the pianoforte,
transposing those which do not sound
as written and reading the different
clefs at sight as he goes along.

121

CHAP.
IV.

Score
reading.

122

At an Orchestral Concert

Classical
and Popu-
lar.

IN popular phrase all high-class music
is "classical," and all concerts at
which such music is played are " classi-
cal concerts." Here the word is con-
ceived as the antithesis of " popular,"
which term is used to designate the or-
dinary music of the street and music-
hall. Elsewhere I have discussed the
true meaning of the word and shown its
relation to " romantic " in the terminol-
ogy of musical critics and historians.
No harm is done by using both " classi-
cal " and " popular " in their common
significations, so far as they convey a
difference in character between con-
certs. The highest popular conception
of a classical concert is one in which a
complete orchestra performs sympho-
nies and extended compositions in allied

At an Orchestral Concert

123

forms, such as overtures, symphonic
poems, and concertos. Change the
composition of the instrumental body,
by omitting the strings and augmenting
the reed and brass choirs, and you have
a military band which is best employed
in the open air, and whose programmes
are generally made up of compositions
in the simpler and more easily compre-
hended forms dances, marches, fan-
tasias on popular airs, arrangements of
operatic excerpts and the like. These,
then, are popular concerts in the broad-
est sense, though it is proper enough to
apply the term also to concerts given
by a symphonic band when the pro-
gramme is light in character and aims
at more careless diversion than should
be sought at a " classical " concert.
The latter term, again, is commended
to use by the fact that as a rule the
music performed at such a concert ex-
emplifies the higher forms in the art,
classicism in music being defined as
that principle which seeks expression
in beauty of form, in a symmetrical or-
dering of parts and logical sequence,
" preferring aesthetic beauty, pure and

CHAP. V.

Orchestras
and mili-
tary bands.

12 4

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. V.

The Sym-
phony.

Mistaken
ideas about
theform,.

simple, over emotional content," as I
have said in Chapter III.

As the highest type of instrumental
music, we take the Symphony. Very
rarely indeed is a concert given by an
organization like the New York and
London Philharmonic Societies, or the
Boston and Chicago Orchestras, at
which the place of honor in the scheme
of pieces is not given to a symphony.
Such a concert is for that reason also
spoken of popularly as a "Symphony
concert," and no confusion would nec-
essarily result from the use of the term
even if it so chanced that there was no
symphony on the programme. What
idea the word symphony conveys to the
musically illiterate it would be difficult
to tell. I have known a professional
wAter on musical subjects to express
the opinion that a symphony was noth-
ing else than four unrelated composi-
tions for orchestra arranged in a certain
sequence for the sake of an agreeable
contrast of moods and tempos. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the writer
in question had a very poor opinion of
the Symphony as an Art-form, and be

At an Orchestral Concert

lieved that it had outlived its usefulness
and should be relegated to the limbo of
Archaic Things. If he, however, trained
in musical history and familiar with
musical literature, could see only four
unrelated pieces of music in a sym-
phony by Beethoven, we need not mar-
vel that hazy notions touching the nat-
ure of the form are prevalent among
the untaught public, and that people
can be met in concert-rooms to whom
such words as " Symphony in C minor,"
and the printed designations of the dif-
ferent portions of the work the " move-
ments," as musicians call them are ut-
terly bewildering.

The word symphony has itself a sin-
gularly variegated history. Like many
another term in music it was borrowed
by the modern world from the ancient
Greek. To those who coined it, how-
ever, it had a much narrower meaning
than to us who use it, with only a con-
ventional change in transliteration, now.
By cvfifovta the Greeks simply ex-
pressed the concept of agreement, or
consonance. Applied to music it meant
first such intervals as unisons; then

12J

CHAP. V.

History of
theUrm.

126

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. V.

Changes in
meaning.

HancUTs
" Pastoral
Sympho-
ny"

the notion was extended to include
consonant harmonies, such as the fifth,
fourth, and octave. The study of the
ancient theoreticians led the musicians
of the Middle Ages to apply the
word to harmony in general. Then
in some inexplicable fashion it came
to stand as a generic term for instru-
mental compositions such as toccatas,
sonatas, etc. Its name was given to
one of the precursors of the pianoforte,
and in Germany in the sixteenth cen-
tury the word Symphoney came to
mean a town band. In the last century
and the beginning of this the term was
used to designate an instrumental intro-
duction to a composition for voices,
such as a song or chorus, as also an in-
strumental piece introduced in a choral
work. The form, that is the extent and
structure of the composition, had noth-
ing to do with the designation, as we
see from the Italian shepherds' tune
which Handel set for strings in " The
Messiah ; " he called it simply fifa, but
his publishers called it a " Pastoral
symphony," and as such we still know
it. It was about the middle of the eigh-

At an Orchestral Concert

teenth century that the present signifi-
cation became crystallized in the word,
and since the symphonies of Haydn, in
which the form first reached perfection,
are still to be heard in our concert-
rooms, it may be said that all the mas-
terpieces of symphonic literature are
current.

I have already hinted at the fact that
there is an intimate relationship between
the compositions usually heard at a clas-
sical concert. Symphonies, symphonic
poems, concertos for solo instruments
and orchestra, as well as the various
forms of chamber music, such as trios,
quartets, and quintets for strings, or
pianoforte and strings, are but different
expressions of the idea which is best
summed up in the word sonata. What
musicians call the " sonata form " lies at
the bottom of them all even those which
seem to consist of a single piece, like the
symphonic poem and overture. Pro-
vided it follow, not of necessity slav-
ishly, but in its general structure, a cer-
tain scheme which was slowly developed
by the geniuses who became the law-
givers of the art, a composite or cyclical

127

CHAP. V.

The allied
forms.

Sonata
form.

128

CHAP. V.

Symphony,
sonata, and
concerto.

What a
symphony

How to Listen to Music

composition (that is, one composed of a
number of parts, or movements) is, as
the case may be, a symphony, concerto,
or sonata. It is a sonata if it be written
for a solo instrument like the pianoforte
or organ, or for one like the violin or
clarinet, with pianoforte accompaniment.
If the accompaniment be written for or-
chestra, it is called a concerto. A sonata
written for an orchestra is a symphony.
The nature of the interpreting medium
naturally determines the exposition of
the form, but all the essential attributes
can be learned from a study of the sym-
phony, which because of the dignity and
eloquence of its apparatus admits of a
wider scope than its allies, and must be
accepted as the highest type, not merely
of the sonata, but of the instrumental
art. It will be necessary presently to
point out the more important modifica-
tions which compositions of this charac-
ter have undergone in the development
of music, but the ends of clearness will
be best subserved if the study be con-
ducted on fundamental lines.

The symphony then, as a rule, is a
composition for orchestra made up of

At an Orchestral Concert

four parts, or movements, which are not
only related to each other by a bond of
sympathy established by the keys chosen
but also by their emotional contents.
Without this higher bond the unity of
the work would be merely mechanical,
like the unity accomplished by sameness
of key in the old-fashioned suite. (See
Chapter VI.) The bond of key-relation-
ship, though no longer so obvious as
once it was, is yet readily discovered by
a musician ; the spiritual bond is more
elusive, and presents itself for recogni-
tion to the imagination and the feelings
of the listener. Nevertheless, it is an
element in every truly great symphony,
and I have already indicated how it may
sometimes become patent to the ear
alone, so it be intelligently employed,
and enjoy the co-operation of memory.

It is the first movement of a sym-
phony which embodies the structural
scheme called the "sonata form." It
has a triple division, and Mr. Edward
Dannreuther has aptly defined it as
"the triune symmetry of exposition,
illustration, and repetition." In the
first division the composer introduces

129

CHAF. V.

The bond of
unity be-
tween the
parts.

Thefirst
movement.

130

CHAP. V.

Exposition
of subjects.

Repetition
of the first
subdivi-

How to Listen to Music

the melodies which he has chosen to
be the thematic material of the move-
ment, and to fix the character of the
entire work ; he presents it for identifi-
cation. The themes are two, and their
exposition generally exemplifies the
principle of key-relationship, which was
the basis of my analysis of a simple
folk tune in Chapter II. In the case of
the best symphonists the principal and
second subjects disclose a contrast, not
violent but yet distinct, in mood or
character. If the first is rhythmically
energetic and assertive masculine, let
me say the second will be more sedate,
more gentle in utterance feminine.
After the two subjects have been in-
troduced along with some subsidiary
phrases and passages which the com-
poser uses to bind them together and
modulate from one key into another,
the entire division is repeated. That is
the rule, but it is now as often "hon-
ored in the breach" as in the observ-
ance, some conductors not even hesi-
tating to ignore the repeat marks in
Beethoven's scores.
The second division is now taken up.

At an Orchestral Concert

In it the composer exploits his learn-
ing and fancy in developing his the-
matic material. He is now entirely
free to send it through long chains of
keys, to vary the harmonies, rhythms,
and instrumentation, to take a single
pregnant motive and work it out with
all the ingenuity he can muster ; to force
it up " steep-up spouts " of passion and
let it whirl in the surge, or plunge it
into " steep-down gulfs of liquid fire,"
and consume its own heart. Techni-
cally this part is called the " free fan-
tasia " in English, and the Durch-
fiihrung " working out " in German.
I mention the terms because they some-
times occur in criticisms and analyses.
It is in this division that the genius of
a composer has fullest play, and there
is no greater pleasure, no more delight-
ful excitement, for the symphony-lover
than to follow the luminous fancy of
Beethoven through his free fantasias.
The third division is devoted to a repe-
tition, with modifications, of the first
division and the addition of a close.

First movements are quick and ener-
getic, and frequently full of dramatic

CHAP. V.

Thefree
fantasia or
" working-
out " por-
tion.

Repetition.

CHAP. V.

Introduc-
tions.

Keys and
Titles.

How to Listen to Music

fire. In them the psychological story
is begun which is to be developed in
the remaining chapters of the work
its sorrows, hopes, prayers, or com-
munings in the slow movement ; its
madness or merriment in the scherzo;
its outcome, triumphant or tragic, in
the finale. Sometimes the first move-
ment is preceded by a slow introduc-
tion, intended to prepare the mind of
the listener for the proclamation which
shall come with the Allegro. The key
of the principal subject is set down as
the key of the symphony, and unless
the composer gives his work a special
title for the purpose of providing a hint
as to its poetical contents (" Eroica,"
" Pastoral," " Faust," " In the Forest,"
"Lenore," " Path6tique," etc.), or to
characterize its style (" Scotch," " Ital-
ian," "Irish," "Welsh," "Scandina-
vian," " From the New World "), it is
known only by its key, or the number
of the work (opus) in the composer's
list. Therefore we have Mozart's
Symphony " in G minor," Beethoven's
"in A major," Schumann's "in C,"
Brahms's " in F," and so on.

At an Orchestral Concert

The second movement in the sym-
phonic scheme is the slow movement.
Musicians frequently call it the Adagio,
for convenience, though the tempi of
slow movements ranges from extremely
slow (Largo) to the border line of fast, as
in the case of the Allegretto of the Sev-
enth Symphony of Beethoven. The
mood of the slow movement is frequent-
ly sombre, and its instrumental coloring
dark ; but it may also be consolatory,
contemplative, restful, religiously uplift-
ing. The writing is preferably in a
broadly sustained style, the effect being
that of an exalted hymn, and this has
led to a predilection for a theme and
variations as the mould in which to
cast the movement. The slow move-
ments of Beethoven's Fifth and Ninth
Symphonies are made up of varia-
tions.

The Scherzo is, as the term implies,
the playful, jocose movement of a sym-
phony, but in the case of sublime ge-
niuses like Beethoven and Schumann,
who blend profound melancholy with
wild humor, the playfulness is some-
times of a kind which invites us to

133

CHAP. V.

The second
movement.

Variations.

The
Scherzo.

134

How to Listen to Music

Genesis of
the Scherzo.

CHAP. V. thoughtfulness instead of merriment.
This is true also of some Russian com-
posers, whose scherzos have the desper-
ate gayety which speaks from the music
of a sad people whose merrymaking is
not a spontaneous expression of exu-
berant spirits but a striving after self-for-
getfulness. The Scherzo is the successor
of the Minuet, whose rhythm and form
served the composers down to Beet-
hoven. It was he who substituted the
Scherzo, which retains the chief formal
characteristics of the courtly old dance
in being in triple time and having a sec-
ond part called the Trio. With the
change there came an increase in speed,
but it ought to be remembered that the
symphonic minuet was quicker than the
dance of the same name. A tendency
toward exaggeration, which is patent
among modern conductors, is threaten-
ing to rob the symphonic minuet of the
vivacity which gave it its place in the
scheme of the symphony. The entrance

The Trio. o f the Trio is marked by the introduc-
tion of a new idea (a second minuet)
which is more sententious than the first
part, and sometimes in another key,

At an Orchestral Concert

the commonest change being from
minor to major.

The final movement, technically the
Finale, is another piece of large dimen-
sions in which the psychological drama
which plays through the four acts of
the symphony is brought to a conclu-
sion. Once the purpose of the Finale
was but to bring the symphony to a
merry end, but as the expressive capac-
ity of music has been widened, and mere
play with aesthetic forms has given place
to attempts to convey sentiments and
feelings, the purposes of the last move-
ment have been greatly extended and
varied. As a rule the form chosen for
the Finale is that called the Rondo.
Borrowed from an artificial verse-form
(the French Rondeaii), this species of
composition illustrates the peculiarity
of that form in the reiteration of a
strophe ever and anon after a new
theme or episode has been exploited.
In modern society verse, which has
grown out of an ambition to imitate
the ingenious form invented by me-
diaeval poets, we have the Triolet, which
may be said to be a rondeau in minia-

CHAP. V.

The Finale.

Rondo
form.

136

CHAP. V.

A Rondo
pattern in
poetry.

Other
forms for
the Finale.

How to Listen to Music

ture. I choose one of Mr. H. C. Bun-
ner's dainty creations to illustrate the
musical refrain characteristic of the
rondo form because of its compactness.
Here it is :

" A pitcher of mignonette

In a tenement's highest casement :
Queer sort of a flower-pot yet

That pitcher of mignonette
Is a garden in heaven set,

To the little sick child in the basement
The pitcher of mignonette,

In the tenement's highest casement."

If now the first two lines of this poem,
which compose its refrain, be permitted
to stand as the principal theme of a mu-
sical piece, we have in Mr. Bunner's
triolet a rondo in nuce. There is in It a
threefold exposition of the theme alter-
nating with episodic matter. Another
form for the finale is that of the first
movement (the Sonata form), and still
another, the theme and variations. Beet-
hoven chose the latter for his " Ero-
ica," and the choral close of his Ninth,
Dvorak, for his symphony in G major,
and Brahms for his in E minor.

I am attempting nothing more than a

At an Orchestral Concert

characterization of the symphony, and
the forms with which I associated it at
the outset, which shall help the un-
trained listener to comprehend them as
unities despite the fact that to the care-
less hearer they present themselves as
groups of pieces each one of which is
complete in itself and has no connec-
tion with its fellows. The desire of
composers to have their symphonies ac-
cepted as unities instead of compages
of unrelated pieces has led to the adop-
tion of various devices designed to
force the bond of union upon the atten-
tion of the hearer. Thus Beethoven in
his symphony in C minor not only
connects the third and fourth move-
ments but also introduces a reminis-
cence of the former into the midst of
the latter ; Berlioz in his " Symphonic
Fantastique," which is written to what
may be called a dramatic scheme, makes
use of a melody which he calls " Vidte
fixe!' and has it recur in each of the
four movements as an episode. This,
however, is frankly a symphony with
programme, and ought not to be treated
as a modification of the pure form.

137

CHAP. V.

Organic
Unities.

How en-
forced.

Berlioz's
"ideejtxe."

138

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. V.

Recapitu-
lation of
themes.

Introduc-
tion of
voices.

Dvorak in his symphony entitled " From
the New World," in which he has striven
to give expression to the American
spirit, quotes the first period of his
principal subject in all the subsequent
movements, and then sententiously re-
capitulates the principal themes of the
first, second, and third movements in
the finale ; and this without a sign of
the dramatic purpose confessed by Ber-
lioz.

In the last movement of his Ninth
Symphony Beethoven calls voices to the
aid of his instruments. It was a daring
innovation, as it seemed to disrupt the
form, and we know from the story of
the work how long he hunted for the
connecting link, which finally he found
in the instrumental recitative. Having
hit upon the device, he summons each
of the preceding movements, which are
purely instrumental, into the presence
of his augmented forces and dismisses
it as inadequate to the proclamation
which the symphony was to make.
The double-basses and solo barytone
are the spokesmen for the tuneful host.
He thus achieves the end of connecting

At an Orchestral Concert

the Allegro, Scherzo, and Adagio with
each other, and all with the Finale, and
at the same time points out what it is
that he wishes us to recognize as the in-
spiration of the whole ; but here, again,
the means appear to be somewhat ex-
traneous. Schumann's example, how-
ever, in abolishing the pauses between
the movements of the symphony in D
minor, and having melodic material
common to all the movements, is a plea
for appreciation which cannot be mis-
understood. Before Schumann Men-
delssohn intended that his "Scotch"
symphony should be performed with-
out pauses between the movements, but
his wishes have been ignored by the
conductors, I fancy because he having
neglected to knit the movements to-
gether by community of ideas, they
can see no valid reason for the aboli-
tion of the conventional resting-places.

Beethoven's augmentation of the
symphonic forces by employing voices
has been followed by Berlioz in his
" Romeo and Juliet," which, though
called a "dramatic symphony," is a
mixture of symphony, cantata, and

CHAP. V.

Abolition
of pauses.

Beethoven's
" choral"
symphony
followed.

140

How to Listen to Music

CHAP. V.

Increase in.
the number
of move-
ments.

opera; Mendelssohn in his "Hymn of
Praise " (which is also a composite
work and has a composite title " Sym-
phony Cantata "), and Liszt in his
"Faust" symphony, in the finale of
which we meet a solo tenor and chorus
of men's voices who sing Goethe's Cho-
rus mysticus.

A number of other experiments have
been made, the effectiveness of which
has been conceded in individual in-
stances, but which have failed perma-
nently to affect the symphonic form.
Schumann has two trios in his sym-
phony in B-flat, and his E-flat, the so-
called " Rhenish," has five movements
instead of four, there being two slow
movements, one in moderate tempo
(Nicht schnell), and the other in slow
(Feierlick). In this symphony, also,
Schumann exercises the license which
has been recognized since Beethoven's
time, of changing the places in the
scheme of the second and third move-
ments, giving the second place to the
jocose division instead of the slow.
Beethoven's " Pastoral " has also five
movements, unless one chooses to take

At an Orchestral Concert

the storm which interrupts the " Merry-
making of the Country Folk " as stand-
ing toward the last movement as an in-
troduction, as, indeed, it does in the
composer's idyllic scheme. Certain it
is, Sir George Grove to the contrary
notwithstanding, that the sense of a
disturbance of the symphonic plan is
not so vivid at a performance of the
"Pastoral" as at one of Schumann's
" Rhenish, " in which either the third
movement or the so-called " Cathedral
Scene " is most distinctly an interloper.
Usually it is deference to the demands
of a " programme " that influences com-
posers in extending the formal boun-
daries of a symphony, and when this is
done the result is frequently a work
which can only be called a symphony
by courtesy. M. Saint-Saens, however,
attempted an original excursion in his
symphony in C minor, without any dis-
coverable, or at least confessed, pro-
grammatic idea. He laid the work out
in two grand divisions, so as to have
but one pause. Nevertheless in each
division we can recognize, though as
through a haze, the outlines of the fa-

141

CHAP. V.

Further
extension
of bound-
aries.

142

CHAP. V.

Saint-
Saens's C
minor
symphony.

The

Symphonic

Poem.

How to Listen to Music

miliar symphonic movements. In the
first part, buried under a sequence of
time designations like this: Adagio
Allegro moderate Poco adagio, we dis-
cover the customary first and second
movements, the former preceded by a
slow introduction ; in the second divis-
ion we find this arrangement: Allegro
moderato Presto Maestoso Allegro,
this multiplicity of terms affording only
a sort of disguise for the regulation
scherzo and finale, with a cropping out
of reminiscences from the first part
which have the obvious purpose to im-
press upon the hearer that the sym-
phony is an organic whole. M. Saint-
Saens has also introduced the organ
and a pianoforte with two players into
the instrumental apparatus.

Three characteristics may be said to
distinguish the Symphonic Poem, which
in the view of the extremists who fol-
low the lead of Liszt is the logical out-
come of the symphony and the only
expression of its aesthetic principles
consonant with modern thought and
feeling. First, it is programmatic
that is, it is based upon a poetical idea,

At an Orchestral Concert

a sequence of incidents, or of soul-
states, to which a clew is given either
by the title or a motto ; second, it is
compacted in form to a single move-
ment, though as a rule the changing
phases delineated in the separate move-
ments of the symphony are also to be
found in the divisions of the work
marked by changes in tempo, key, and
character ; third, the work generally
has a principal subject of such plas-
ticity that the composer can body
forth a varied content by presenting it
in a number of transformations.

The last two characteristics Liszt has
carried over into his pianoforte con-
certo in E-flat This has four distinct
movements (viz.: I. Allegro maestoso;
II. Quasi adagio ; III. Allegretto vivace,
sckerzando ; IV. Allegro marziale anima-
fo\ but they are fused into a continuous
whole, throughout which the principal
thought of the work, the stupendously
energetic phrase which the orchestra
proclaims at the outset, is presented in
various forms to make it express a great
variety of moods and yet give unity to
the concerto. " Thus, by means of this

H3

CHAP. V.

Its charac-
teristics.

Listfs
first piano-
forte con-
certo.

144

CHAP. V.

Other

cyclical

forms.

Pianoforte

*>td orches-

How to Listen to Music

metamorphosis," says Mr. Edward Dann-
reuther, " the poetic unity of the whole
musical tissue is made apparent, spite
of very great diversity of details ; and
Coleridge's attempt at a definition of
poetic unity unity in multiety is car-
ried out to the letter."

It will readily be understood that the
other cyclical compositions which I have
associated with a classic concert, that is,
compositions belonging to the category
of chamber music (see Chapter III.),
and concertos for solo instruments with
orchestral accompaniment, while con-
forming to che scheme which I have
outlined, all have individual character-
istics conditioned on the expressive ca-
pacity of the apparatus. The modern
pianoforte is capable of asserting itself
against a full orchestra, and concertos
have been written for it in which it is
treated as an orchestral integer rather
than a solo instrument. In the older
conception, the orchestra, though it
frequently assumed the privilege of in-
troducing the subject-matter, played a
subordinate part to the solo instrument
in its development. In violin as well as

At an Orchestral Concert

pianoforte concertos special opportu-
nity is given to the player to exploit his
skill and display the solo instrument
free from structural restrictions in the
cadenza introduced shortly before the
close of the first, last, or both move-
ments.

Cadenzas are a relic of a time when
the art of improvisation was more
generally practised than it is now, and
when performers were conceded to
have rights beyond the printed page.
Solely for their display, it became cus-
tomary for composers to indicate by a
hold (/c\) a place where the perform-
er might indulge in a flourish of his
own. There is a tradition that Mo-
zart once remarked : " Wherever I
smear that thing," indicating a hold,
"you can do what you please;" the
rule is, however, that the only priv-
ilege which the cadenza opens to the
player is that of improvising on mate-
rial drawn from the subjects already
developed, and since, also as a rule,
composers are generally more eloquent
in the treatment of their own ideas than
performers, it is seldom that a cadenza

CHAP. V.

Cadenzas.

Improvisa-
tions by the
player.

146

CHAP. V.

M. Ysaye's
opinion of
Cadenzas.

Concertos.

How to Listen to Music

contributes to the enjoyment afforded
by a work, except to the lovers of tech-
nique for technique's sake. I never
knew an artist to make a more sensible
remark than did M. Ysaye, when on the
eve of a memorably beautiful perform-
ance of Beethoven's violin concerto, he
said: "If I were permitted to consult
my own wishes I would put my violin
under my arm when I reach \hefermate
and say : ' Ladies and gentlemen, we
have reached the cadenza. It is pre-
sumptuous in any musician to think that
he can have anything to say after
Beethoven has finished. With- your
permission we will consider my cadenza
played.' " That Beethoven may him-
self have had a thought of the same
nature is a fair inference from the cir-
cumstance that he refused to leave the
cadenza in his E-flat pianoforte con-
certo to the mercy of the virtuosos but
wrote it himself.

Concertos for pianoforte or violin are
usually written in three movements, of
which the first and last follow the sym-
phonic model in respect of elaboration
and form, and the second is a brief move-

At an Orchestral Concert

ment in slow or moderate time, which
has the character of an intermezzo. As
to the nomenclature of chamber music, it
is to be noted that unless connected with
a qualifying word or phrase, " Quartet "
means a string- quartet. When a piano-
forte is consorted with strings the work
is spoken of as a Pianoforte Trio, Quar-
tet, or Quintet, as the case may be.

The form of the overture is that of the
first movement of the sonata, or sym-
phony, omitting the repetition of the
first subdivision. Since the original pur-
pose, which gave the overture its name
(Ouverture = aperture, opening), was to
introduce a drama, either spoken or
lyrical, an oratorio, or other choral
composition, it became customary for
the composers to choose the subjects of
the piece from the climacteric moments
of the music used in the drama. When
done without regard to the rules of con-
struction (as is the case with practically
all operetta overtures and Rossini's) the
result is not an overture at all, but a pot-
pourri, a hotch-potch of jingles. The
present beautiful form, in which Beet-
hoven and other composers have shown

H7

CHAP. V

Chamber
music.

The Over-
ture.

Pot-fonrris.

148

CHAP. V.

Old styles
of over-
tures.

The
Prelude.

Gluck's
principle.

How to Listen to Music

that it is possible to epitomize an entire
drama, took the place of an arbitrary
scheme which was wholly aimless, so far
as the compositions to which they were
attached were concerned.

The earliest fixed form of the over-
ture is preserved to the current lists of
to-day by the compositions of Bach and
Handel. It is that established by Lully,
and is tripartite in form, consisting of a
rapid movement, generally a fugue, pre-
ceded and followed by a slow movement
which is grave and stately in its tread. In
its latest phase the overture has yielded
up its name in favor of Prelude (Ger-
man, Vorspiel), Introduction, or Sym-
phonic Prologue. The finest of these,
without borrowing their themes from
the works which they introduce, but
using new matter entirely, seek to fulfil
the aim which Gluck set for himself,
when, in the preface to "Alceste," he
wrote : " I imagined that the overture
ought to prepare the audience for the
action of the piece, and serve as a kind
of argument to it." Concert overtures
are compositions designed by the com-
posers to stand as independent pieces in-

At an Orchestral Concert

stead of for performance in connection
with a drama, opera, or oratorio. When,
as is frequently the case, the composer,
nevertheless, gives them a descriptive
title ("Hebrides," " Sakuntala "), their
poetical contents are to be sought in
the associations aroused by the title.
Thus, in the instances cited, " Heb-
rides " suggests that the overture was
designed by Mendelssohn to reflect the
mood awakened in him by a visit to the
Hebrides, more particularly to Fingal's
Cave (wherefore the overture is called
the " Fingal's Cave" overture in Ger-
many) " Sakuntala " invites to a study
of Kalidasa's drama of that name as
the repository of the sentiments which
Goldmark undertook to express in his
music.

A form which is variously employed,
for solo instruments, small combina-
tions, and full orchestra (though seldom
with the complete modern apparatus),
is the Serenade. Historically, it is a
contemporary ol the old suites and
the first symphonies, and like them it
consists of a group of short pieces, so
arranged as to form an agreeable con-

149

CHAP. V.

Descrip-
tive titles.

Serenades.

150

CHAP. V.

The Ser-
enade in
Shake-
speare.

Out-of-
doors
music.

How to Listen to Music

trast with each other, and yet convey a
sense of organic unity. The character
of the various parts and their order
grew out of the purpose for which the
serenade was originated, which was
that indicated by the name. In the last
century, and earlier, it was no uncom-
mon thing for a lover to bring the
tribute of a musical performance to his
mistress, and it was not always a
" woful ballad " sung to her eyebrow.
Frequently musicians were hired, and
the tribute took the form of a nocturnal
concert. In Shakespeare's " Two Gen-
tlemen of Verona," Proteus, prompting
Thurio what to do to win Silvias love,
says:

44 Visit by night your lady's chamber window
With some sweet concert : to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump ; the night's dread silence
Will well become such sweet complaining griev-
ance."

It was for such purposes that the
serenade was invented as an instru-
mental form. Since they were to play
out of doors, Sir Thurio 's musicians
would have used wind instruments in-

At an Orchestral Concert

stead of viols, and the oldest serenades
are composed for oboes and bassoons.
Clarinets and horns were subsequently
added, and for such bands Mozart wrote
serenades, some of which so closely
approach the symphony that they have
been published as symphonies. A ser-
enade in the olden time opened very
properly with a march, to the strains of
which we may imagine the musicians
approaching the lady's chamber win-
dow. Then came a minuet to prepare
her ear for the " deploring dump "
which followed, the " dump " of Shake-
speare's day, like the " dumka" of ours
(with which I am tempted to associate
it etymologically), being a mournful
piece of music most happily character-
ized by the poet as a " sweet complain-
ing grievance." Then followed another
piece in merry tempo and rhythm, then
a second adagio, and the entertainment
ended with an allegro, generally in march
rhythm, to which we fancy the musicians
departing. The order is exemplified in
Beethoven's serenade for violin, viola,
and violoncello, op. 8, which runs thus :
March; Adagio ; Minuet ; Adagio with

CHAP. V.

Old/arms.

The
"Dump."

Beethoven's

Serenade,

op.*.

152

CHAP. V.

The

Orchestral

Suite.

Ballet
music.

How to Listen to Music

episodic Scherzo ; Polacca; Andante (va-
riations), the opening march repeated.

The Suite has come back into favor
as an orchestral piece, but the term no
longer has the fixed significance which
once it had. It is now applied to al-
most any group of short pieces, pleas-
antly contrasted in rhythm, tempo, and
mood, each complete in itself yet dis-
closing an aesthetic relationship with its
fellows. Sometimes old dance forms
are used, and sometimes new, such as
the polonaise and the waltz. The bal-
let music, which fills so welcome a place
in popular programmes, may be looked
upon as such a suite, and the rhythm
of the music and the orchestral coloring
in them are frequently those peculiar to
the dances of the countries in which the
story of the opera or drama for which
the music was written plays. The bal-
lets therefore afford an excellent oppor-
tunity for the study of local color. Thus
the ballet music from Massenet's " Cid "
is Spanish, from Rubinstein's " Fera-
mors " Oriental, from " Aida " Egyptian
Oriental rhythms and colorings being
those most easily copied by composers.

At an Orchestral Concert

The other operatic excerpts common
to concerts of both classes are either be-
tween-acts music, fantasias on operatic
airs, or, in the case of Wagner's contribu-
tions, portions of his dramas which are so
predominantly instrumental that it has
been found feasible to incorporate the
vocal part with the orchestral. In ballet
music from the operas of the last century,
some of which has been preserved to the
modern concert-room, local color must
not be sought. Gluck's Greeks, like
Shakespeare's, danced to the rhythms of
the seventeenth century. Vestris, whom
the people of his time called " The god of
the dance," once complained to Gluck
that his " Iphig6nie en Aulide " did not
end with a chaconne, as was the rule.
" A chaconne ! " cried Gluck ; " when
did the Greeks ever dance a chaconne?"
" Didn't they? Didn't they ? " answered
Vestris ; " so much the worse for the
Greeks. " There ensued a quarrel.
Gluck became incensed, withdrew the
opera which was about to be produced,
and would have left Paris had not Marie
Antoinette come to the rescue. But
Vestris got his chaconne.

CHAP. V.

Operatic
excerpts.

Gluck and
Vestris.

154

VI

At a Pianoforte Recital

\ Mr. Pade-
\ rewski's
i concerts.

NO clearer illustration of the magi-
cal power which lies in music,
no more convincing proof of the puis-
sant fascination which a musical artist
can exert, no greater demonstration of
the capabilities of an instrument of
music can be imagined than was af-
forded by the pianoforte recitals which
Mr. Paderewski gave in the United
States during the season of 1895-96.
More than threescore times in the
course of five months, in the principal
cities of this country, did this wonder-
ful man seat himself in the presence of
audiences, whose numbers ran into the
thousands, and were limited only by
the seating capacity of the rooms in
which they gathered, and hold them
spellbound from two to three hours by

At a Pianoforte Recital

the eloquence of his playing. Each
time the people came in a gladsome
frame of mind, stimulated by the recol-
lection of previous delights or eager
expectation. Each time they sat listen-
ing to the music as if it were an evangel
on which hung everlasting things.
Each time there was the same growth
in enthusiasm which began in deco-
rous applause and ended in cheers and
shouts as the artist came back after the
performance of a herculean task, and
added piece after piece to a programme
which had been laid down on generous
lines from the beginning. The careless
saw the spectacle with simple amaze-
ment, but for the judicious it had a
wondrous interest.

I am not now concerned with Mr.
Paderewski beyond invoking his aid in
bringing into court a form of entertain-
ment which, in his hands, has proved to
be more attractive to the multitude than
symphony, oratorio, and even opera.
What a world of speculation and curi-
ous inquiry does such a recital invite
one into, beginning with the instrument
which was the medium of communica-

155

CHAP.
VI.

Pianoforte
recit&ls.

156

CHAP.
VI.

The piano-
forte s un-
derlying
principles.

Their
Genesis.

How to Listen to Music

tion between the artist and his hearers !
To follow the progressive development
of the mechanical principles underlying
the pianoforte, one would be obliged to
begin beyond the veil which separates
history from tradition, for the first of
them finds its earliest exemplification
in the bow twanged by the primitive
savage. Since a recognition of these
principles may help to an understand-
ing of the art. of pianoforte playing, I
enumerate them now. They are :

1. A stretched string as a medium of
tone production.

2. A key-board as an agency for ma-
nipulating the strings.

3. A blow as the means of exciting
the strings to vibratory action, by which
the tone is produced.

Many interesting glimpses of the
human mind and heart might we have
in the course of the promenade through
the ancient, mediaeval, and modern
worlds which would be necessary to
disclose the origin and growth of these
three principles, but these we must fore-
go, since we are to study the music of
the instrument, not its history. Let the

At a Pianoforte Recital

knowledge suffice that the fundamental
principle of the pianoforte is as old as
music itself, and that scientific learning,
inventive ingenuity, and mechanical
skill, tributary always to the genius of
the art, have worked together for cen-
turies to apply this principle, until the
instrument which embodies it in its
highest potency is become a veritable
microcosm of music. It is the visible
sign of culture in every gentle house-
hold; the indispensable companion of
the composer and teacher; the in-
termediary between all the various
branches of music. Into the study of the
orchestral conductor it brings a trans-
lation of all -the multitudinous voices
of the band ; to the choir-master it rep-
resents the chorus of singers in the
church-loft or on the concert-platform ;
with its aid the opera director fills his
imagination with the people, passions,
and pageantry of the lyric drama long
before the singers have received their
parts, or the costumer, stage manager,
and scene - painter have begun their
work. It is the only medium through
which the musician in his study can

CHAP.
VI.

Signifi-
cance of the
pianoforte.

CHAP.
VI.

Defects

of the
puutoforte.

How to Listen to Music

commune with the whole world of music
and all its heroes ; and though it may
fail to inspire somewhat of that sym-
pathetic nearness which one feels tow-
ard the violin as it nestles under the
chin and throbs synchronously with the
player's emotions, or those wind instru-
ments into which the player breathes
his own breath as the breath of life, it
surpasses all its rivals, save the organ,
in its capacity for publishing the grand
harmonies of the masters, for uttering
their " sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs
and harping symphonies/'

This is one side of the picture and
serves to show why the pianoforte is the
most universal, useful, and necessary of
all musical instruments. The other side
shows its deficiencies, which must also
be known if one is to appreciate right-
ly the many things he is called upon
to note while listening intelligently to
pianoforte music. Despite all the skill,
learning, and ingenuity which have been
spent on its perfection, the pianoforte
can be made only feebly to approximate
that sustained style of musical utterance
which is the soul of melody, and finds

At a Pianoforte Recital

'59

its loftiest exemplification in singing.
To give out a melody perfectly, presup-
poses the capacity to sustain tones with-
out loss in power or quality, to bind
them together at will, and sometimes to
intensify their dynamic or expressive
force while they sound. The tone of
the pianoforte, being produced by a
blow, begins to die the moment it is cre-
ated. The history of the instrument's
mechanism, and also of its technical
manipulation, is the history of an effort
to reduce this shortcoming to a mini-
mum. It has always conditioned the
character of the music composed for
the instrument, and if we were not in
danger of being led into too wide an
excursion, it would be profitable to
trace the parallelism which is disclosed
by the mechanical evolution of the in-
strument, and the technical and spirit-
ual evolution of the music composed
for it. A few points will be touched
upon presently, when the intellectual
activity invited by a recital is brought
under consideration.

It is to be noted, further, that by a
beautiful application of the doctrine of

CHAP.
VI.

Lack of

sustaining

fowtr.

i6o

CHAP.
VI.

The

percussive

element.

Melody
with drum-
beats.

How to Listen to Music

compensations, the factor which limits
the capacity of the pianoforte as a mel-
ody instrument endows it with a merit
which no other instrument has in the
same degree, except the instruments of
percussion, which, despite their useful-
ness, stand on the border line between
savage and civilized music. It is from
its relationship to the drum that the
pianoforte derives a peculiarity quite
unique in the melodic and harmonic
family. Rhythm is, after all, the start-
ing-point of music. More than melody,
more than harmony, it stirs the blood
of the savage, and since the most vital
forces within man are those which date
back to his primitive state, so the sense
of rhythm is the most universal of the
musical senses among even the most
cultured of peoples to-day. By them-
selves the drums, triangles, and cym-
bals of an orchestra represent music but
one remove from noise ; but everybody
knows how marvellously they can be
utilized to glorify a climax. Now, in
a very refined degree, every melody
on the pianoforte, be it played as deli-
cately as it may, is a melody with drum-

At a Pianoforte Recital

beats. Manufacturers have done much
toward eliminating the thump of the
hammers against the strings, and famil-
iarity with the tone of the instrument
has closed our ears against it to a great
extent as something intrusive, but the
blow which excites the string to vibra-
tion, and thus generates sound, is yet a
vital factor in determining the character
of pianoforte music. The recurrent
pulsations, now energetic, incisive, reso-
lute, now gentle and caressing, infuse
life into the melody, and by emphasizing
its rhythmical structure (without un-
duly exaggerating it), present the form
of the melody in much sharper outline
than is possible on any other instru-
ment, and much more than one would
expect in view of the evanescent char-
acter of the pianoforte's tone. It is this
quality, combined with the mechanism
which places all the gradations of tone,
from loudest to softest, at the easy and
instantaneous command of the player,
which, I fancy, makes the pianoforte,
in an astonishing degree, a substitute
for all the other instruments. Each in-
strument in the orchestra has an idiom,

CHAP.
VI.

Rhythmi-
cal accent-
uation.

A univer-
sal substi-
tute.

162

CHAK
VI.

TTie in-
strument's
mechanism.

How to Listen to Music

which "sounds incomprehensible when
uttered by some other of its fellows, but
they can all be translated, with more or
less success, into the language of the
pianoforte not the quality of the tone,
though even that can be suggested, but
the character of the phrase. The pi-
anoforte can sentimentalize like the
flute, make a martial proclamation like
the trumpet, intone a prayer like the
churchly trombone.

In the intricacy of its mechanism the
pianoforte stands next to the organ.
The farther removed from direct utter-
ance we are the more difficult is it to
speak the true language of music. The
violin player and the singer, and in a
less degree the performers upon some
of the wind instruments, are obliged to
form the musical tone which, in the
case of the pianist, is latent in the instru-
ment, ready to present itself in two of
its attributes in answer to a simple
pressure upon the key. The most un-
musical person in the world can learn to
produce a series of tones from a piano-
forte which shall be as exact in pitch
and as varied in dynamic force as can

At a Pianoforte Recital

Mr. Paderewski. He cannot combine
them so ingeniously nor imbue them
with feeling, but in the simple matter of
producing the tone with the attributes
mentioned, he is on a level with the
greatest virtuoso. Very different is the
case of the musician who must exercise
a distinctly musical gift in the simple
evocation of the materials of music, like
the violinist and singer, who both form
and produce the tone. For them com-
pensation flows from the circumstance
that the tone thus formed and produced
is naturally instinct with emotional life
in a degree that the pianoforte tone
knows nothing of.

In one respect, it may be said that
the mechanics of pianoforte playing
represent a low plane of artistic ac-
tivity, a fact which ought always to be
remembered whenever the temptation is
felt greatly to exalt the technique of the
art ; but it must also be borne in mind
that the mechanical nature of simple
tone production in pianoforte playing
raises the value of the emotional qual-
ity which, nevertheless, stands at the
command of the player. The emotional

163

CHAP.
VI.

Tone for-
mation and
production.

Technical
manipula-
tion.

164

CHAP.
VI.

Touch and
emotional-
ity.

The tech-
nical cult.

How to Listen to Music

potency of the tone must come from
the manner in which the blow is given
to the string. Recognition of this fact
has stimulated reflection, and this in
turn has discovered methods by which
temperament and emotionality may be
made to express themselves as freely,
convincingly, and spontaneously in
pianoforte as in violin playing. If
this were not so it would be impossible
to explain the difference in the charm
exerted by different virtuosi, for it has
frequently happened that the best-
equipped mechanician and the most in-
tellectual player has been judged in-
ferior as an artist to another whose gifts
were of the soul rather than of the brains
and fingers.

The feats accomplished by a piano-
forte virtuoso in the mechanical depart-
ment are of so extraordinary a nature
that there need be small wonder at the
wide prevalence of a distinctly techni-
cal cult. All who know the real nature
and mission of music must condemn
such a cult. It is a sign of a want of
true appreciation to admire technique
for technique's sake. It is a mistaking

At a Pianoforte Recital

of the outward shell for the kernel, a
means for the end. There are still many
players who aim to secure this admira-
tion, either because they are deficient in
real musical feeling, or because they
believe themselves surer of winning ap-
plause by thus appealing to the lowest
form of appreciation. In the early part
of the century they would have been
handicapped by the instrument which
lent itself to delicacy, clearness, and
gracefulness of expression, but had
little power. Now the pianoforte has
become a thing of rigid steel, enduring
tons of strain from its strings, and hav-
ing a voice like the roar of many waters ;
to keep pace with it players have be-
come athletes with

" Thews of Anakim
And pulses of a Titan's heart"

They care no more for the "mur-
murs made to bless," unless it be occa-
sionally for the sake of contrast/ but
seek to astound, amaze, bewilder, and
confound with feats of skill and endur-
ance. That with their devotion to the
purely mechanical side of the art they

i6 5

CHAP.
VI.

A low form
of art.

166

CHAP.
VI.

Technical
skill a
matter of
course.

The plan of
study in
this chap-
ter.

How to Listen to Music

are threatening to destroy pianoforte
playing gives them no pause whatever.
The era which they illustrate and adorn
is the technical era which was, is, and
ever shall be, the era of decay in
artistic production. For the judicious
technique alone, be it never so marvel-
lous, cannot serve to-day. Its posses-
sion is accepted as a condition precedent
in the case of everyone who ventures to
appear upon the concert-platform. He
must be a wonder, indeed, who can dis-
turb our critical equilibrium by mere
digital feats. We want strength and
velocity of finger to be coupled with
strength, velocity, and penetration of
thought. We want no halting or lisp-
ing in the proclamation of what the
composer has said, but we want the
contents of his thought, not the hollow
shell, no matter how distinctly its out-
lines be drawn.

The factors which present themselves
for consideration at a pianoforte re-
cital mechanical, intellectual, and emo-
tional can be most intelligently and
profitably studied along with the devel-
opment of the instrument and its music.

At a Pianoforte Recital

All branches of the study are invited by
the typical recital programme. The
essentially romantic trend of Mr. Pad-
erewski's nature makes his excursions
into the classical field few and short ;
and it is only when a pianist undertakes
to emulate Rubinstein in his historical
recitals that the entire pre-Beethoven
vista is opened up. It will suffice
for the purposes of this discussion to
imagine a programme containing pieces
by Bach, D. Scarlatti, Handel, and Mo-
zart in one group ; a sonata by Beetho-
ven ; some of the shorter pieces of
Schumann and Chopin, and one of the
transcriptions or rhapsodies of Liszt.

Such a scheme falls naturally into four
divisions, plainly differentiated from
each other in respect of the style of com-
position and the manner of performance,
both determined by the nature of the
instrument employed and the status of
the musical idea. Simply for the sake
of convenience let the period repre-
sented by the first group be called the
classic ; the second the classic-roman-
tic ; the third the romantic, and the last
the bravura. I beg the reader, how-

167

CHAP.
VI.

A typical
scheme of
pieces.

'Periods in
pianoforte
music.

i68

CHAP.
VI.

Predeces-
sors of the
piano-
forte.

How to Listen to Music

ever, not to extend these designations
beyond the boundaries of the present
study ; they have been chosen arbitra-
rily, and confusion might result if the
attempt were made to apply them to
any particular concert scheme. I have
chosen the composers because of their
broadly representative capacity. And
they must stand for a numerous epigonoi
whose names make up our concert lists :
say, Couperin, Rameau, and Haydn
in the first group; Schubert in the sec-
ond ; Mendelssohn and Rubinstein in
the third. It would not be respectful
to the memory of Liszt were I to give
him the associates with whom in my
opinion he stands ; that matter may be
held in abeyance.

The instruments for which the first
group of writers down to Haydn and
Mozart wrote, were the immediate pre-
cursors of the pianoforte the clavi-
chord, spinet, or virginal, and harpsi-
chord. The last was the concert
instrument, and stood in the same rela-
tionship to the others that the grand
pianoforte of to-day stands to the up-
right and square. The clavichord was

At a Pianoforte Recital

generally the medium for the compos-
er's private communings with his muse,
because of its superiority over its fel-
lows in expressive power; but it gave
forth only a tiny tinkle and was inca-
pable of stirring effects beyond those
which sprang from pure emotionality.
The tone was produced by a blow
against the string, delivered by a bit of
brass set in the farther end of the key.
The action was that of a direct lever,
and the bit of brass, which was called
the tangent, also acted as a bridge and
measured off the segment of string
whose vibration produced the desired
tone. It was therefore necessary to
keep the key pressed down so long as it
was desired that the tone should sound,
a fact which must be kept in mind if
one would understand the shortcomings
as well as the advantages of the instru-
ment compared with the spinet or harp-
sichord. It also furnishes one explana-
tion of the greater lyricism of Bach's
music compared with that of his con-
temporaries. By gently rocking the
hand while the key was down, a tremu-
lous motion could be communicated to

169

CHAP.
VI.

The Clavi-
chord.

"Bcbung."

170

CHAP.
VI.

Quilled in-
struments.

How to Listen to Music

the string, which not only prolonged the
tone appreciably but gave it an expres-
sive effect somewhat analogous to the
vibrato of a violinist. The Germans
called this effect Bebung, the French
Balancement, and it was indicated by a
row of dots under a short slur written
over the note. It is to the special fond-
ness which Bach felt for the clavichord
that we owe, to a great extent, the can-
tabile style of his music, its many-
voicedness and its high emotionality.

The spinet, virginal, and harpsichord
were quilled instruments, the tone of
which was produced by snapping the
strings by means of plectra made of
quill, or some other flexible substance,
set in the upper end of a bit of wood
called the jack, which rested on the far-
ther end of the key and moved through
a slot in the sounding-board. When
the key was pressed down, the jack
moved upward past the string which
was caught and twanged by the plec-
trum. The blow of the clavichord tan-
gent could be graduated like that of the '
pianoforte hammer, but the quills of the
other instruments always plucked the

At a Pianoforte Recital

strings with the same force, so that me-
chanical devices, such as a swell-box,
similar in principle to that of the or-
gan, coupling in octaves, doubling the
strings, etc., had to be resorted to for
variety of dynamic effects. The char-
acter of tone thus produced determined
the character of the music composed for
these instruments to a great extent.
The brevity of the sound made sus-
tained melodies ineffective, and encour-
aged the use of a great variety of em-
bellishments and the spreading out of
harmonies in the form of arpeggios.
It is obvious enough that Bach, being
one of those monumental geniuses that
cast their prescient vision far into the
future, refused to be bound by such me-
chanical limitations. Though he wrote
Clavier, he thought organ, which was h?s
true interpretative medium, and so it
happens that the greatest sonority and
the broadest style that have been de-
veloped in the pianoforte do not ex-
haust the contents of such a composi-
tion as the " Chromatic Fantasia and
Fugue."

The earliest music written for these

CHAP.
VI.

Tone of the
harpsi-
chord and
spinet.

Bach's
"Music of
thefut-

172

CHAP.
VI.

Scarlattfs
sonatas.

How to Listen to Music

instruments music which does not en-
ter into this study was but one remove
from vocal music. It came through
compositions written for the organ.
Of Scarlatti's music the pieces most
familiar are a Capriccio and Pastorale
which Tausig rewrote for the piano-
forte. They were called sonatas by
their composer, but are not sonatas
in the modern sense. Sonata means
"sound-piece," and when the term came
into music it signified only that the
composition to which it was applied
was written for instruments instead of
voices. Scarlatti did a great deal to
develop the technique of the harpsi-
chord and the style of composing for it.
His sonatas consist each of a single
movement only, but in their structure
they foreshadow the modern sonata
form in having two contrasted themes,
which are presented in a fixed key-rela-
tionship. They are frequently full of
grace and animation, but are as purely
objective, formal, and soulless in their
content as the other instrumental com-
positions of the epoch to which they
belong.

At a Pianoforte Recital

The most significant of the composi-
tions of this period are the Suites, which
because they make up so large a per-
centage of Clavier literature (using the
term to cover the pianoforte and its pred-
ecessors), and because they pointed the
way to the distinguishing form of the
subsequent period, the sonata, are deserv-
ing of more extended consideration. The
suite is a set of pieces in the same key,
but contrasted in character, based upon
certain admired dance-forms. Originally
it was a set of dances and nothing more,
but in the hands of the composers the
dances underwent many modifications,
some of them to the obvious detriment
of their national or other distinguish-
ing characteristics. The suite came
into fashion about the middle of the
seventeenth century and was also called
Sonata da Camera and Ballet to in Italy,
and, later, Partita in France. In its fun-
damental form it embraced four move-
ments: I. Allemande. II. Courante.
III. Sarabande. IV. Gigue. To these
four were sometimes added other dances
the Gavotte, Passepied, Branle, Min-
uet, Bourree, etc. but the rule was that

173

CHAP.
VI.

The suite.

Its history
and/arm.

'74

CHAP.
VI.

The bond
between the
moifgments.

The

Jllcmandi.

How to Listen to Music

they should be introduced between the
Sarabande and the Gigue. Sometimes
also the set was introduced by a Prelude
or an Overture. Identity of key was
the only external tie between the vari-
ous members of the suite, but the com-
posers sought to establish an artistic
unity by elaborating the sentiments for
which the dance-forms seemed to offer
a vehicle, and presenting them in agree-
able contrast, besides enriching the
primitive structure with new material.
The suites of Bach and Handel are the
high-water mark in this style of com-
position, but it would be difficult to
find the original characteristics of the
dances in their settings. It must suffice
us briefly to indicate the characteristics
of the principal forms.

The Allemande, as its name indicates,
was a dance of supposedly German
origin. For that reason the German
composers, when it came to them from
France, where the suite had its origin,
treated it with great partiality. It is
in moderate tempo, common time, and
made up of two periods of eight meas-
ures, both of which are repeated. It

At a Pianoforte Recital

*75

begins with an upbeat, and its metre,
to use the terms of prosody, is iambic.
The following specimen from Mer-
senne's " Harmonic Universelle," 1636,
well displays its characteristics :

CHAP.
VI.

y r i '' ' l f 1 - 4 tt ! i

> [ r^ * i*.. 1 f i 1 1 * (^ \ \ ?_ -^-.. 1

i i , f-\ [ i |l I 1 (-41 1

I ' r r r T i"' Ji:' F ' I
i r' r r r if L -^r-i*> r r - r>i

p p_| f 3 r- \r* ' m -, f 3 -g a p .g -g^v-ai

Robert Burns's familiar iambics,

" Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fair ?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae fu' o' care ! "

might serve to keep the rhythmical
characteristics of the Allemande in
mind were it not for the arbitrary
changes made by the composers already
hinted at. As it is, we frequently find
the stately movement of the old dance

Iambics in
music and
f^eiry.

176

CHAP.
VI.

The
Courante.

How to Listen to Music

broken up into elaborate, but always
quietly flowing, ornamentation, as indi-
cated in the following excerpt from the
third of Bach's English suites:

ft

* L *

J- J

etc.

The Courante, or Corrente (" Teach
lavoltas high and swift corantos," says
Shakespeare), is a French dance which
was extremely popular in the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries
a polite dance, like the minuet. It
was in triple time, and its movement
was bright and brisk, a merry energy
being imparted to the measure by the
prevailing figure, a dotted quarter-note,
an eighth, and a quarter in a measure,
as illustrated in the following excerpt
also from Mersenne :

At a Pianoforte Recital

>77

The suite composers varied the move-

CHAF.

ment greatly, however, and the Italian

VI.

Corrente consists chiefly of rapid run-

ning passages.

The Sarabande was also in triple time,

The

but its movement was slow and stately.

Sarabande.

In Spain, whence it was derived, it was

sung to the accompaniment of casta-

nets, a fact which in itself suffices to in-

dicate that it was originally of a lively

character, and took on its solemnity in

the hands of the later composers. Han-

del found the Sarabande a peculiarly

admirable vehicle for his inspirations,

and one of the finest examples extant

figures in the triumphal music of his

"Almira," composed in 1704:

7T I ~ r

band*
by Handel.

1P'ft-i9- -J&- -*- s~} f ff -3* -(9- -g- -&- &- **-

- J I J fl J J J J Kn> -

r ^'- *' J 'r:n

[

CHAP.
VI.

How to Listen to Music

J. !

* rj ^ H i~^~g~ J ~r^- fl p-^-f =1
r ^-

Seven years after the production of
" Almira," Handel recurred to this
beautiful instrumental piece, and out of
it constructed the exquisite lament be-
ginning " Lascia ch'io pianga " in his
opera " Rinaldo."

Great Britain's contribution to the
Suite was the final Gigue, which is our
jolly and familiar friend the jig, and
in all probability is Keltic in origin. It
is, as everybody knows, a rollicking
measure in 6-8, 12-8, or 4-4 time, with
twelve triplet quavers in a measure,
and needs no description. It remained
a favorite with composers until far into
the eighteenth century. Shakespeare
proclaims its exuberant lustiness when

At a Pianoforte Recital

L

he makes Sir Toby Belch protest that
had he Sir Andrew's gifts his " very
walk should be a jig." Of the other
dances incorporated into the suite, two
are deserving of special mention be-
cause of their influence on the music of
to-day the Minuet, which is the par-
ent of the symphonic scherzo, and the
Gavotte, whose fascinating movement is
frequently heard in latter-day operet-
tas. The Minuet is a French dance,
and came from Poitou. Louis XIV.
danced it to Lully's music for the first
time at Versailles in 1653, and it soon
became the most popular of court and
society dances, holding its own down
to the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury. It was long called the Queen of
Dances, and there is no one who has
grieved to see the departure of gal-
lantry and grace from our ball-rooms
but will wish to see Her Gracious Maj-
esty restored to her throne. The mu-
sic of the minuet is in 3-4 time, and of
stately movement. The Gavotte is a
lively dance-measure in common time,
beginning, as a rule, on the third beat.
Its origin has been traced to the moun-

1 79

CHAP.
VI.

The

Minuet.

The
Gavotte.

i8o

CHAP.
VI.

Technique
of the

Clavier
players.

How to Listen to Music

tain people of the Dauphine* called
Gavots whence its name.

The transferrence of this music to the
modern pianoforte has effected a vast
change in the manner of its perform-
ance. In the period under considera-
tipn emotionality, which is considered
the loftiest attribute of pianoforte
playing to-day, was lacking, except
in the case of such masters of the
clavichord as the great Bach and his son,
Carl Philipp Emanuel, who inherited
his father's preference for that instru-
ment over the harpsichord and piano-
forte. Tastefulness in the giving out
of the melody, distinctness of enuncia-
tion, correctness of phrasing, nimble-
ness and lightness of finger, summed up
practically all that there was in virtuoso-
ship. Intellectuality and digital skill
were the essential factors. Beauty of
tone through which feeling and tem-
perament speak now was the product
of the maker of the instrument, except
again in the case of the clavichord, in
which it may have been largely the
creation of the player. It is, therefore,
not surprising that the first revolution

At a Pianoforte Recital

in technique of which we hear was ac-
complished by Bach, who, the better to
bring out the characteristics of his poly-
phonic style, made use of the thumb,
till then considered almost a useless
member of the hand in playing, and
bent his fingers, so that their move-
ments might be more unconstrained.

Of the varieties of touch, which play
such a role in pianoforte pedagogics
to-day, nothing was known. Only on
the clavichord was a blow delivered
directly against the string, and, as has
already been said, only on that instru-
ment was the dynamic shading regu-
lated by the touch. Practically, the
same touch was used on the organ and
the stringed instruments with key-board.
When we find written praise of the old
players it always goes to the fluency
and lightness of their fingering. Han-
del was greatly esteemed as a harpsi-
chord player, and seems to have in-
vented a position of the hand like
Bach's, or to have copied it from that
master. Forkel tells us the movement
of Bach's fingers was so slight as to be
scarcely noticeable ; the position of his

181

CHAP.
VI.

Change in
technique.

Bach's
touch.

182

CHAP.
VI.

Handel's
playing.

Scarlatti's
style.

How to Listen to Music

hands remained unchanged throughout,
and the rest of his body motionless.
Speaking of Handel's harpsichord play-
ing, Burney says that his fingers
"seemed to grow to the keys. They
were so curved and compact when he
played that no motion, and scarcely the
fingers themselves, could be discovered."
Scarlatti's significance lies chiefly in an
extension of the technique of his time
so as to give greater individuality to the
instrument. He indulged freely in brill-
iant passages and figures which some-
times call for a crossing of the hands, also
in leaps of over an octave, repetition
of a note by different fingers, broken
chords in contrary motion, and other
devices which prefigure modern piano-
forte music.

That Scarlatti also pointed the way
to the modern sonata, I have already
said. The history of the sonata,
as the term is now understood, ends
with Beethoven. Many sonatas have
been written since the last one of that
great master, but not a word has been
added to his proclamation. He stands,
therefore, as a perfect exemplar of the

At a Pianoforte Recital

second period in the scheme which we
have adopted for the study of piano-
forte music and playing. In a general
way a sonata may be described as a
composition of four movements, con-
trasted in mood, tempo, sentiment, and
character, but connected by that spirit-
ual bond of which mention was made in
our study of the symphony. In short,
a sonata is a symphony for a solo instru-
ment.

When it came into being it was
little else than a convenient formula
for the expression of musical beauty.
Haydn, who perfected it on its formal
side, left it that and nothing more.
Mozart poured the vessel full of beauty,
but Beethoven breathed the breath of a
new life into it. An old writer tells us
of Haydn that he was wont to say that
the whole art of composing consisted in
taking up a subject and pursuing it.
Having invented his theme, he would
begin by choosing the keys through
which he wished to make it pass.

" His exquisite feeling gave him a perfect knowl-
edge of the greater or less degree of effect which

i8 3

CHAP.
VI.

The sonata.

Haydn.

184

CHAP.
VI.

Beethoven.

Mozart's
manner of
playing.

How to Listen to Music

one chord produces in succeeding another, and he
afterward imagined a little romance which might
furnish him with sentiments and colors."

Beethoven began with the sentiment
and worked from it outwardly, modify-
ing the form when it became necessary
to do so, in order to obtain complete
and perfect utterance. He made spirit
rise superior to matter. This must be
borne in mind when comparing the
technique of the previous period with
that of which I have made Beethoven
the representative. In the little that
we are privileged to read of Mozart's
style of playing, we see only a reflex of
the players who went before him, sav-
ing as it was permeated by the warmth
which went out from his own genial
personality. His manipulation of the
keys had the quietness and smoothness
that were praised in Bach and Handel.

" Delicacy and taste," says Kullak, " with his
lifting of the entire technique to the spiritual aspi-
ration of the idea, elevate him as a virtuoso to a
height unanimously conceded by the public, by con-
noisseurs, and by Artists capable of judging, de-
menti declared that he had never heard any one

At a Pianoforte Recital

play so soulfully and charmfully as Mozart; Dit-
tersdorf finds art and taste combined in his play-
ing; Haydn asseverated with tears that Mozart's
playing he could never forget, for it touched the
heart. His staccato is said to have possessed a
peculiarly brilliant charm."

The period of C. P. E. Bach, Haydn,
and Mozart is that in which the piano-
forte gradually replaced its predeces-
sors, and the first real pianist was Mo-
zart's contemporary and rival, Muzio
Clementi. His chief significance lies in
his influence as a technician, for he
opened the way to the modern style of
play with its greater sonority and ca-
pacity for expression. Under him pas-
sage playing became an entirely new
thing; deftness, lightness, and fluency
were replaced by stupendous virtuoso-
ship, which rested, nevertheless, on a full
and solid tone. He is said to have been
able to trill in octaves with one hand.
He was necessary for the adequate in-
terpretation of Beethoven, whose music
is likehr to be best understood by those
who know that he, too, was a superb
pianoforte player, fully up to the re-
quirements which his last sonatas make

CHAP.
VI.

dementi*

Beethoven
as a
pianist.

i86

CHAP.
VI.

Beethoven 's
technique.

Expression
supreme.

How to Listen to Music

upon technical skill as well as intellect-
ual and emotional gifts.

Czerny, who was a pupil of Beethoven,
has preserved a fuller account of that
great composer's art as a player than we
have of any of his predecessors. He de-
scribes his technique as tremendous, bet-
ter than that of any virtuoso of his day.
He was remarkably deft in connecting
the full chords, in which he delighted,
without the use of the pedal. His man-
ner at the instrument was composed and
quiet. He sat erect, without movement
of the upper body, and only when his
deafness compelled him to do so, in
order to hear his own music, did he con-
tract a habit of leaning forward. With
an evident appreciation of the necessi-
ties of old-time music he had a great
admiration for clean fingering, especi-
ally in fugue playing, and he objected to
the use of Cramer's studies in the in-
struction of his nephew by Czerny be-
cause they led to what he called a
" sticky " style of play, and failed to
bring out crisp staccatos and a light
touch. But it was upon expression that
he insisted most of all when he taught.

At a Pianoforte Recital

More than anyone else it was Beet-
hoven who brought music back to the
purpose which it had in its first rude
state, when it sprang unvolitionally
from the heart and lips of primitive
man. It became again a vehicle for
the feelings. As such it was accepted
by the romantic composers to whom
he belongs as father, seer, and prophet,
quite as intimately as he belongs to the
classicists by reason of his adherence to
form as an essential in music. To his
contemporaries he appears as an image-
breaker, but to the clearer vision of to-
day he stands an unshakable barrier to
lawless iconoclasm. Says Sir George
Grove, quoting Mr. Edward Dannreu-
ther, in the passages within the inverted
commas :

" That he was no wild radical altering for the
mere pleasure of alteration, or in the mere search
for originality, is evident from the length of time
during which he abstained from publishing, or even
composing works of pretension, and from the like-
ness which his early works possess to those of his
predecessors. He began naturally with the forms
which were in use in his days, and his alteration of
them grew very gradually with the necessities of
his expression. The form of the sonata is ' the

CHAP.
VI.

Music and
emotion.

Beethoven,
a Roman-
ticist.

i88

CHAP.
VI.

Schumann

and

Chopin.

How to Listen to Music

transparent veil through which Beethoven seems to
have looked at all music.' And the good points of
that form he retained to the last the ' triune sym-
metry of exposition, illustration, and repetition,'
which that admirable method allowed and enforced
but he permitted himself a much greater liberty
than his predecessors had done in the relationship
of the keys of the different movements, and parts of
movements, and in the proportion of the clauses
and sections with which he built them up. In other
words, he was less bound by the forms and musical
rules, and more swayed by the thought which he
had to express, and the directions which that
thought took in his mind."

It is scarcely to be wondered at that
when men like Schumann and Chopin
felt the full force of the new evangel
which Beethoven had preached, they
proceeded to carry the formal side of
poetic expression, its vehicle, into re-
gions unthought of before their time.
The few old forms had now to give way
to a large variety. In their work they
proceeded from points that were far
apart Schumann's was literary, Cho-
pin's political. In one respect the lists
of their pieces which appear most fre-
quently on recital programmes seem to
hark back to the suites of two centu-

At a Pianoforte Recital

ries ago they are sets of short composi-
tions grouped, either by the composer
(as is the case with Schumann) or by
the performer (as is the case with
Chopin in the hands of Mr. Paderew-
ski). Such fantastic musical miniatures
as Schumann's " Carnaval " and " Papil-
lons" are eminently characteristic of the
composer's intellectual and emotional
nature, which in his university days had
fallen under the spell of literary ro-
manticism.

While ostensibly studying jurispru-
dence at Heidelberg, Schumann de-
voted seven hours a day to the piano-
forte and several to Jean Paul. It was
this writer who moulded not only
Schumann's literary style in his early
years, but also gave the bent which his
creative activity in music took at the
outset. To say little, but vaguely hint
at much, was the rule which he adopted ;
to remain sententious in expression, but
give the freest and most daring flight
to his imagination, and spurn the con-
ventional limitations set by rule and cus-
tom, his ambition. Such fanciful and
symbolical titles as " Flower, Fruit, and

189

CHAF.
VI.

yean

Parts

influence.

i go

CHAP.
VI.

Schumann's
inspira-
tions.

Chopin's
music.

How to Listen to Music

Thorn Pieces," "Titan/' etc., which
Jean Paul adopted for his singular mixt-
ures of tale, rhapsody, philosophy, and
satire, were bound to find an imitator
in so ardent an apostle as young Schu-
mann, and, therefore, we have such com-
positions as " Papillons," " Carnaval,"
" Kreisleriana," " Phantasiestucke," and
the rest. Almost always, it may be
said, the pieces which make them up
were composed under the poetical and
emotional impulses derived from liter-
ature, then grouped and named. To
understand their poetic contents this
must be known.

Chopin's fancy, on the other hand,
found stimulation in the charm which,
for him, lay in the tone of the piano-
forte itself (to which he added a new
loveliness by his manner of writing), as
well as in the rhythms of the popular
dances of his country. These dances
he not only beautified as the old suite
writers beautified their forms, but he
utilized them as vessels which he filled
with feeling, not all of which need be
accepted as healthy, though much of
it is. As to his titles, " Preludes " is

At a Pianoforte Recital

191

purely an arbitrary designation for
compositions which are equally indefi-
nite in form and character; Niecks
compares them very aptly to a portfolio
full of drawings " in all stages of ad-
vancement finished and unfinished,
complete and incomplete compositions,
sketches and mere memoranda, all
mixed indiscriminately together." So,
too, they appeared to Schumann:
" They are sketches, commencements of
studies, or, if you will, ruins, single
eagle-wings, all strangely mixed to-
gether." Nevertheless some of them
are marvellous soul-pictures.

The " fitudes " are studies intended to
develop the technique of the pianoforte
in the line of the composer's discoveries,
his method of playing extended arpeg-
gios, contrasted rhythms, progressions
in thirds and octaves, etc., but still they
breathe poetry and sometimes passion.
Nocturne is an arbitrary, but expres-
sive, title for a short composition of a
dreamy, contemplative, or even elegiac,
character. In many of his nocturnes
Chopin is the adored sentimentalist of
boarding - school misses. There is

CHAP.
VI.

Preludes.

Etudes.

Nocturnes.

192

CHAP.
VI.

The
Polonaise.

Tkt
Maxurk*.

How to Listen to Music

poppy in them and seductive poison for
which Niecks sensibly prescribes Bach
and Beethoven as antidotes. The term
ballad has been greatly abused in litera-
ture, and in music is intrinsically un-
meaning. Chopin's four Ballades have
one feature in common they are writ-
ten in triple time ; and they are among
his finest inspirations.

Chopin's dances are conventionalized,
and do not all speak the idiom of the peo-
ple who created their forms, but their
original characteristics ought to be
known. The Polonaise was the stately
dance of the Polish nobility, more a
march or procession than a dance, full
of gravity and courtliness, with an im-
posing and majestic rhythm in triple
time that tends to emphasize the second
beat of the measure, frequently synco-
pating it and accentuating the second
half of the first beat :

3 JT ,

etc.

j.

National color comes out more clearly
in his Mazurkas. Unlike the Polonaise
this was the dance of the common peo-

At a Pianoforte Recital

pie, and even as conventionalized and
poetically refined by Chopin there is
still in the Mazurka some of the rude
vigor which lies in its propulsive
rhythm :

J

etc.

The Krakowiak (French Cracovienne,
Mr. Paderewski has a fascinating speci-
men in his " Humoresques de Concert,"
op. 14) is a popular dance indigenous to
the district of Cracow, whence its name.
Its rhythmical elements are these :

and/ J /

In the music of this period there is
noticeable a careful attention on the
part of the composers to the peculiari-
ties of the pianoforte. No music, save
perhaps that of Liszt, is so idiomatic.
Frequently in Beethoven the content
of the music seems too great for the
medium of expression ; we feel that the
thought would have had better expres-
sion had the master used the orchestra
instead of the pianoforte. We may

193

CHAP.
VI.

The

Krakowi&k.

Idiomatic
music.

194

CHAP.
VI.

Content
higher
than idiom.

How to Listen to Music

well pause a moment to observe the
development of the instrument and its
technique from then till now, but as
condemnation has already been pro-
nounced against excessive admiration
of technique for technique's sake, so now
I would first utter a warning against
our appreciation of the newer charm.
" Idiomatic of the pianoforte " is a good
enough phrase and a useful, indeed, but
there is danger that if abused it may
bring something like discredit to the
instrument. It would be a pity if music,
which contains the loftiest attributes of
artistic beauty, should fail of apprecia-
tion simply because it had been ob-
served that the pianoforte is not the
most convenient, appropriate, or effec-
tive vehicle for its publication a pity
for the pianoforte, for therein would
lie an exemplification of its imperfec-
tion. So, too, it would be a pity if the
opinion should gain ground that music
which had been clearly designed to
meet the nature of the instrument was
for that reason good pianoforte music,
i.e., " idiomatic " music, irrespective of
its content.

At a Pianoforte Recital

In Beethoven's day the pianoforte
was still a feeble instrument compared
with the grand of to-day. Its capac-
ities were but beginning to be ap-
preciated. Beethoven had to seek and
invent effects which now are known
to every amateur. The instrument
which the English manufacturer Broad-
wood presented to him in 1817 had a
compass of six octaves, and was a whole
octave wider in range than Mozart's
pianoforte. In 1793 dementi extended
the key-board to five and a half oc-
taves ; six and a half octaves were
reached in 1811, and seven in 1851.
Since 1851 three notes have been added
without material improvement to the
instrument. This extension of compass,
however, is far from being the most
important improvement since the clas-
sic period. The growth in power, so-
nority, and tonal brilliancy has been
much more marked, and of it Liszt
made striking use.

Very significant, too, in their relation
to the development of the music, were
the invention and improvement of the
pedals. The shifting pedal was invented

195

CHAP.
VI.

Develop-
ment of the
pianoforte.

The

Pedals.

CHAP.
VI.

Shiftinf

Damter
pedal.

How to Listen to Music

by a Viennese maker named Stein, who
first applied it to an instrument which
he named " Saiten-harmonika." Before
then soft effects were obtained by inter-
posing a bit of felt between the hammers
and the strings, as may still be seen in
old square pianofortes. The shifting
pedal, or soft pedal as it is popularly
called, moves the key-board and action
so that the hammer strikes only one or
two of the unison strings, leaving the
other to vibrate sympathetically. Beet-
hoven was the first to appreciate the
possibilities of this effect (see the slow
movement of his concerto in G major
and his last sonatas), but after him came
Schumann and Chopin, and brought
pedal manipulation to perfection, especi-
ally that of the damper pedal. This is
popularly called the loud pedal, and the
vulgarest use to which it can be put is
to multiply the volume of tone. It was
Chopin who showed its capacity for
sustaining a melody and enriching the
color effects by releasing the strings
from the dampers and utilizing the ethe-
real sounds which rise from the strings
when they vibrate sympathetically.

At a Pianoforte Recital

It is no part of my purpose to indulge
in criticism of composers, but some-
thing of the kind is made unavoidable
by the position assigned to Liszt in our
pianoforte recitals. He is relied upon
to provide a scintillant close. The
pianists, then, even those who are his
professed admirers, are responsible if
he is set down in our scheme as the
exemplar of the technical cult. Tech-
nique having its unquestioned value, we
are bound to admire the marvellous
gifts which enabled Liszt practically to
sum up all the possibilities of pianoforte
mechanism in its present stage of con-
struction, but we need not look with
unalloyed gratitude upon his influence
as a composer. There were, I fear, two
sides to Liszt's artistic character as well
as his moral. I believe he had in him a
touch of charlatanism as well as a mag-
nificent amount of artistic sincerity
just as he blended a laxity of moral
ideas with a profound religious mysti-
cism. It would have been strange in-
deed, growing up as he did in the
whited sepulchre of Parisian salon life,
if he had not accustomed himself to

197

CHAP.
VI.

Liszt.

A dual
character.

CHAP.
VI.

Lisxt's

Hungarian

Rhapsodies.

How to Listen to Music

sacrifice a little of the soul of art for
the sake of vainglory, and a little of its
poetry and feeling to make display of
those dazzling digital feats which he in-
vented. But, be it said to his honor, he
never played mountebank tricks in the
presence of the masters whom he re-
vered. It was when he approached the
music of Beethoven that he sank all
thought of self and rose to a peerless
height as an interpreting artist.

Liszt's place as a composer of original
music has not yet been determined, but
as a transcriber of the music of others
the givers of pianoforte recitals keep
him always before us. The showy
Hungarian Rhapsodies with which the
majority of pianoforte recitals end are,
however, more than mere transcrip-
tions. They are constructed out of the
folk-songs of the Magyars, and in their
treatment the composer has frequently
reproduced the characteristic perform-
ances which they receive at the hands
of the Gypsies from whom he learned
them. This fact and the belief to which
Liszt gave currency in his book "JDes
Boh6miens et de leur musique en Hon-

At a Pianoforte Recital

grie " have given rise to the almost uni-
versal belief that the Magyar melodies
are of Gypsy origin. This belief is er-
roneous. The Gypsies have for centu-
ries been the musical practitioners of
Hungary, but they are not the compos-
ers of the music of the Magyars, though
they have put a marked impress not
only on the melodies, but also on popu-
lar taste. The Hungarian folk-songs
are a perfect reflex of the national char-
acter of the Magyars, and some have
been traced back centuries in their lit-
erature. Though their most marked
melodic peculiarity, the frequent use of
a minor scale containing one or even
two superfluous seconds, as thus :

may be said to belong to Oriental mu-
sic as a whole (and the Magyars are
Orientals), the songs have a rhythmical
peculiarity which is a direct product of
the Magyar language. This peculiarity
consists of a figure in which the empha-
sis is shifted from the strong to the

199

CHAP.
VI.

Gypsies

and

Magyars.

Magyar
scales.

200

CHAP.
VI.

The Scotch
snap.

Gypsy

How to Listen to Music

weak part by making the first take only
a fraction of the time of the second,
thus:

/I- or J- J. |

In Scottish music this rhythm also
plays a prominent part, but there it
falls into the beginning of a measure,
whereas in Hungarian it forms the mid-
dle or end. The result is an effect of
syncopation which is peculiarly force-
ful. There is an indubitable Oriental
relic in the profuse embellishments
which the Gypsies weave around the
Hungarian melodies when playing
them ; but the fact that they thrust the
same embellishments upon Spanish and
Russian music, in fact upon all the mu-
sic which they play, indicates plainly
enough that the impulse to do so is na*
tive to them, and has nothing tc do with
the national taste of the coun;ries for
which they provide music. Liszt's con-
fessed purpose in writing the Hunga-
rian Rhapsodies was to create what he
called " Gypsy epics." He had gath-
ered a large number of the melodies
without a definite purpose, and was

At a Pianoforte Recital

201

pondering what to do with them, when
it occurred to him that

" These fragmentary, scattered melodies were
the wandering, floating, nebulous part of a great
whole, that they fully answered the conditions for
the production of an harmonious unity which would
comprehend the very flower of their essential prop-
erties, their most unique beauties," and " might be
united in one homogeneous body, a complete work,
its divisions to be so arranged that each song would
form at once a whole and a part, which might be
severed from the rest and be examined and enjoyed
by and for itself ; but which would, none the less,
belong to the whole through the close affinity of

CHAP.
VI.

subject matter, the similarity of its inner nature and
unity in development." *

The basis of Liszt's Rhapsodies being
thus distinctively national, he has in a
manner imitated in their character and
tempo the dual character of the Hunga-
rian national dance, the Czardas, which
consists of two movements, a Lassu, or
slow movement, followed by a Friss.
These alternate at the will of the
dancer, who gives a sign to the band
when he wishes to change from one to
the other.

The

Czardas.

* Weitzmann, ' Geschichte des Clavierspiels," p. 197.

202

Instability
of taste.

VII

At the Opera

POPULAR taste in respect of the
opera is curiously unstable. It is
surprising that the canons of judgment
touching it have such feeble and fleeting
authority in view of the popularity of
the art-form and the despotic hold which
it has had on fashion for two centuries.
No form of popular entertainment is
acclaimed so enthusiastically as a new
opera by an admired composer ; none
forgotten so quickly. For the spoken
drama we go back to Shakespeare in the
vernacular, and, on occasions, we revive
the masterpieces of the Attic poets who
flourished more than two millenniums
ago ; but for opera we are bounded by
less than a century, unless occasional
performances of Gluck's " Orfeo " and
Mozart's " Figaro," " Don Giovanni/'

At the Opera

and " Magic Flute " be counted as sub-
missions to popular demand, which, un-
happily, we know they are not. There
is no one who has attended the opera
for twenty-five years who might not be-
wail the loss of operas from the current
list which appealed to his younger fancy
as works of real loveliness. In the sea-
son of 1895-96 the audiences at the Met-
ropolitan Opera House in New York
heard twenty-six different operas. The
oldest were Gluck's " Orfeo " and Beet-
hoven's " Fidelio," which had a single
experimental representation each. After
them in seniority came Donizetti's " Lu-
cia di Lammermoor," which is sixty-one
years old, and has overpassed the aver-
age age of " immortal" operas by from
ten to twenty years, assuming Dr. Hans-
lick's calculation to be correct.

The composers who wrote operas for
the generation that witnessed Adelina
Patti's dtbut at the Academy of Music,
in New York, were Bellini, Donizetti,
Verdi, and Meyerbeer. Thanks to his
progressive genius, Verdi is still alive
on the stage, though nine-tenths of the
operas which made his fame and fortune

203

CHAP.
VII.

The age of
operas.

Decima-
tion of the
operatic
list.

204

CHAP.
VII.

Depend-
ence on
lingers.

An un-
stable
art-form.

How to Listen to Music

have already sunk into oblivion ; Mey-
erbeer, too, is still a more or less potent
factor with his " Huguenots,'* which,
like " Lucia," has endured from ten to
twenty years longer than the average
" immortal ; " but the continued exist-
ence of Bellini and Donizetti seems to
be as closely bound up with that of two
or three singers as was Meleager's life
with the burning billet which his mother
snatched from the flames. So far as the
people of London and New York are
concerned whether or not they shall
hear Donizetti more, rests with Mes-
dames Patti and Melba, for Donizetti
spells " Lucia; " Bellini pleads piteously
in " Sonnambula," but only Madame
Nevada will play the mediator between
him and our stiff-necked generation.

Opera is a mixed art-form and has
ever been, and perhaps must ever be, in
a state of flux, subject to the changes of
taste in music, the drama, singing, act-
ing, and even politics and morals ; but
in one particular the public has shown
no change for a century and a half, and
it is not quite clear why this has not
given greater fixity to popular appre-

At the Opera

ciation. The people of to-day are as
blithely indifferent to the fact that their
operas are all presented in a foreign
tongue as they were two centuries ago
in England. The influence of Wagner
has done much to stimulate a serious
attitude toward the lyric drama, but
this is seldom found outside of the audi-
ences in attendance on German repre-
sentations. The devotees of the Latin
exotic, whether it blend French or Italian
(or both, as is the rule in New York and
London) with its melodic perfume, enjoy
the music and ignore the words with the
same nonchalance that Addison made
merry over. Addison proves to have
been a poor prophet. The great-grand-
children of his contemporaries are not
at all curious to know " why their fore-
fathers used to sit together like an audi-
ence of foreigners in their own coun-
try, and to hear whole plays acted be-
fore them in a tongue which they did
not understand." What their great-
grandparents did was also done by their
grandparents and their parents, and
may be done by their children, grand-
children, and great-grandchildren after

205

CHAP.
VII.

Careless-
ness of the
public.

Addisotis
criticism.

206

CHAP.
VII.

Indiffer-
ence to the

words.

Past and
present.

How to Listen to Music

them, unless Englishmen and Americans
shall take to heart the lessons which
Wagner essayed to teach his own peo-
ple. For the present, though we have
abolished many absurdities which grew
out of a conception of opera that was
based upon the simple, sensuous delight
which singing gave, the charm of music
is still supreme, and we can sit out an
opera without giving a thought to the
words uttered by the singers. The
popular attitude is fairly represented by
that of Boileau, when he went to hear
" Atys " and requested the box-keeper to
put him in a place where he could hear
Lully's music, which he loved, but not
Quinault's words, which he despised.

It is interesting to note that in this
respect the condition of affairs in Lon-
don in the early part of the eighteenth
century, which seemed so monstrously
diverting to Addison, was like that in
Hamburg in the latter part of the seven-
teenth, and in New York at the end of
the nineteenth. There were three years
in London when Italian and English
were mixed in the operatic representa-
tions.

At the Opera

" The king or hero of the play generally spoke in
Italian and his slaves answered him in English ; the
lover frequently made his court and gained the
heart of his princess in a language which she did
not understand."

At length, says Addison, the audience
got tired of understanding half the
opera, " and to ease themselves entirely
of the fatigue of thinking, so ordered it
that the whole opera was performed in
an unknown tongue."

There is this difference, however, be-
tween New York and London and Ham-
burg at the period referred to : while the
operatic ragout was compounded of Ital-
ian and English in London, Italian and
German in Hamburg, the ingredients
here are Italian, French, and German,
with no admixture of the vernacular.
Strictly speaking, our case is more des-
perate than that of our foreign predeces-
sors, for the development of the lyric dra-
ma has lifted its verbal and dramatic ele-
ments into a position not dreamed of two
hundred years ago. We might endure
with equanimity to hear the chorus sing

" La soupe aux choux sefait dans la mar mite,
Dans la mar mite on fait la soupe aux choux "

207

CHAP.
VII.

Polyglot
opera.

Perversions
of texts.

-Robert k
Diable."

208

CHAP.
VII.

'Fidelia.'

How to Listen to Music

at the beginning of " Robert le Diable,"
as tradition says used to be done in
Paris, but we surely ought to rise in
rebellion 'when the chorus of guards
change their muttered comments on
Pizarro's furious aria in "Fidelio" from

to

Er spricht von Tod und Wunde I "
" Er spricht vom todten Hunde ! "

as is a prevalent custom among the ir-
reverent choristers of Germany.

Addison confesses that he was often
afraid when seeing the Italian perform-
ers " chattering in the vehemence of ac-
tion," that they were calling the audi-
ence names and abusing them among
themselves. I do not know how to
measure the morals and manners of our
Italian singers against those of Addi-
son'? time, but I do know that many of
ihe things which they say before our
very faces for their own diversion are
not complimentary to our intelligence.
I hope I have a proper respect for Mr.
Gilbert's "bashful young potato," but
I do not think it right while we are
sympathizing with the gentle passion of

At the Opera

Siebel to have his representative bring
an offering of flowers and, looking us
full in the face, sing :

" Le patate d'amor,
O carifior ! "

It isn't respectful, and it enables the
cynics of to-day to say, with the poetas-
ters and fiddlers of Addison's day, that
nothing is capable of being well set to
music that is not nonsense. Operatic
words were once merely stalking-horses
for tunes, but that day is past. We used
to smile at Brignoli's "Ah si! ah si! ah
si!" which did service for any text in
high passages ; but if a composer should,
for the accommodation of his music,
change the wording of the creed into
" Credo , non credo, non credo in unum
Deum" as Porpora once did, we should
all cry out for his excommunication.

As an art-form the opera has fre-
quently been criticised as an absurdity,
and it is doubtless owing to such a con-
viction that many people are equally in-
different to the language employed and
the sentiments embodied in the words.
Even so serious a writer as George

209

CHAP.
VII.

1 Faust:

Porporas
"Credo"

210

CHAP.
VII.

Are

words un-
essential?

"// Tr ova-
tore"

How to Listen to Music

Hogarth does not hesitate in his " Me-
moirs of the Opera" to defend this care-
less attitude.

" The words of an air are of small importance to
the comprehension of the business of the piece," he
says ; " they merely express a sentiment, a reflection,
a feeling ; it is quite enough if their general import
is known, and this may most frequently be gathered
from the situation, aided by the character and ex-
pression of the music."

I, myself, have known an ardent lover
of music who resolutely refused to
look into a libretto because, being of a
lively and imaginative temperament,
she preferred to construct her own
plots and put her own words in the
mouths of the singers. Though a con-
stant attendant on the opera, she never
knew what " II Trovatore " was about,
which, perhaps, is not so surprising
after all. Doubtless the play which she
had fashioned in her own mind was
more comprehensible than Verdi's med-
ley of burnt children and asthmatic
dance rhythms. Madame de Stae'l went
so far as to condemn the German com-
posers because they " follow too closely
the sense of the words," whereas the

At the Opera

Italians, " who are truly the musicians
of nature, make the air and the words
conform to each other only in a general
way."

Now the present generation has wit-
nessed a revolution in operatic ideas
which has lifted the poetical elements
upon a plane not dreamed of when
opera was merely a concert in cos-
tume, and it is no longer tolerable that
it be set down as an absurdity. On
the contrary, I believe that, looked
at in the light thrown upon it by the
history of the drama and the origin of
music, the opera is completely justified
as an art-form, and, in its best estate, is
an entirely reasonable and highly ef-
fective entertainment. No mean place,
surely, should be given in the estima-
tion of the judicious to an art-form
which aims in an equal degree to charm
the senses, stimulate the emotions, and
persuade the reason. This, the opera,
or, perhaps I would better say the
lyric drama, can be made to do as effi-
ciently as the Greek tragedy did it, so
far as the differences between the civili-
zations of ancient Hellas and the nine-

211

CHAP.
VII.

The opera
defended as
an art-
form.

212

CHAP.
VII.

The classic
tragedy.

Genesis of
the Greek
plays.

How to Listen to Music

teenth century will permit. The Greek
tragedy was the original opera, a fact
which literary study would alone have
made plain even if it were not clearly
of record that it was an effort to restore
the ancient plays in their integrity that
gave rise to the Italian opera three cen-
turies ago.

Every school-boy knows now that the
Hellenic plays were simply the final
evolution of the dances with which the
people of Hellas celebrated their re-
ligious festivals. At the rustic Bac-
chic feasts of the early Greeks they
sang hymns in honor of the wine-god,
and danced on goat- skins filled with
wine. He who held his footing best on
the treacherous surface carried home
the wine as a reward. They contended
in athletic games and songs for a goat,
and from this circumstance scholars
have surmised we have the word trag-
edy, which means " goat-song." The
choric songs and dances grew in variety
and beauty. Finally, somebody (tradi-
tion preserves the name of Thespis as
the man) conceived the idea of intro-
ducing a simple dialogue between the

At the Opera

strophes of the choric song. Generally
this dialogue took the form of a recital
of some story concerning the god whose
festival was celebrating. Then when
the dithyrambic song returned, it would
either continue the narrative or com-
ment on its ethical features.

The merry-makers, or worshippers, as
one chooses to look upon them, mani-
fested their enthusiasm by imitating the
appearance as well as the actions of the
god and his votaries. They smeared
themselves with wine-lees, colored their
bodies black and red, put on masks,
covered themselves with the skins of
beasts, enacted the parts of nymphs,
fauns, and satyrs, those creatures of
primitive fancy, half men and half goats,
who were the representatives of natural
sensuality untrammelled by convention-
ality.

Next, somebody (Archilocus) sought
to heighten the effect of the story or
the dialogue by consorting it with in-
strumental music ; and thus we find the
germ of what musicians not news-
paper writers call melodrama, in the
very early stages of the drama's de-

213

CHAP.
VII.

Mimicry
and dress.

Melodrama.

21 4

CHAP.
VII.

Factors in

ancient

tragedy.

Operatic
elements.

How to Listen to Music

velopment. Gradually these simple
rustic entertainments were taken in
hand by the poets who drew on the
legendary stores of the people for sub-
jects, branching out from the doings of
gods to the doings of god-like men, the
popular heroes, and developed out of
them the masterpieces of dramatic
poetry which are still studied with
amazement, admiration, and love.

The dramatic factors which have been
mustered in this outline are these :

1. The choric dance and song with
a religious purpose.

2. Recitation and dialogue.

3. Characterization by means of imi-
tative gestures pantomime, that is
and dress.

4. Instrumental music to accompany
the song and also the action.

All these have been retained in the
modern opera, which may be said
to differ chiefly from its ancient model
in the more important and more in-
dependent part which music plays
in it. It will appear later in our
study that the importance and inde-
pendence achieved by one of the ele-

At the Opera

ments consorted in a work by nature
composite, led the way to a revolution
having for its object a restoration of
something like the ancient drama. In
this ancient drama and its precursor, the
dithyrambic song and dance, is found
a union of words and music which
scientific investigation proves to be not
only entirely natural but inevitable.
In a general way most people are in
the habit of speaking of music as the
language of the emotions. The ele-
ments which enter into vocal music (of
necessity the earliest form of music)
are unvolitional products which we
must conceive as co-existent with the
beginnings of human life. Do they
then antedate articulate speech ? Did
man sing before he spoke ? I shall not
quarrel with anybody who chooses so
to put it.

Think a moment about the mechan-
ism of vocal music. Something occurs
to stir up your emotional nature a
great joy, a great sorrow, a great fear;
instantly, involuntarily, in spite of your
efforts to prevent it, maybe, muscular
actions set in which proclaim the emo-

215

CHAP.
VII.

Words and

music

united.

Physiology

2l6

CHAP.
VII.

Herbert

Spencer's

laws.

How to Listen to Music

tion which fills you. The muscles and
organs of the chest, throat, and mouth
contract or relax in obedience to the
emotion. You utter a cry, and accord-
ing to the state of feeling which you are
in, that cry has pitch, quality (timbre
the singing teachers call it), and dy-
namic intensity. You attempt to speak,
and no matter what the words you
utter, the emotional drama playing on
the stage of your heart is divulged.

The man of science observes the phe-
nomenon and formulates its laws, say-
ing, for instance, as Herbert Spencer
has said : " All feelings are muscular
stimuli ;" and, " Variations of voice are
the physiological results of variations
of feeling." It was the recognition of
this extraordinary intimacy between
the voice and the emotions which
brought music all the world over into
the service of religion, and provided
the phenomenon, which we may still
observe if we be but minded to do so,
that mere tones have sometimes the
sanctity of words, and must as little be
changed as ancient hymns and prayers.

The end of the sixteenth century saw

At the Opera

a coterie of scholars, art-lovers, and
amateur musicians in Florence who de-
sired to re-establish the relationship
which they knew had once existed be-
tween music and the drama. The re-
vival of learning had made the classic
tragedy dear to their hearts. They
knew that in the olden time trag-
edy, of which the words only have
come down to us, had been musical
throughout. In their efforts to bring
about an intimacy between dramatic
poetry and music they found that noth-
ing could be done with the polite mu-
sic of their time. It was the period of
highest development in ecclesiastical
music, and the climax of artificiality.
The professional musicians to whom
they turned scorned their theories and
would not help them ; so they fell back
on their own resources. They cut the
Gordian knot and invented a new style
of music, which they fancied was like
that used by the ancients in their stage-
plays. They abolished polyphony, or
contrapuntal music, in everything ex-
cept their choruses, and created a sort of
musical declamation, using variations of

21 7

CHAP.
VII.

Invention
of Italian
opera.

Musical
declama-
tion.

J

2l8

CHAP.
VII.

The music
\ oftheFlor-
! entine re-

formers.

The solo
style, har-
mony, and
declama-
tion.

How to Listen to Music

pitch and harmonies built up on a sim-
ple bass to give emotional life to their
words. In choosing their tones they
were guided by observation of the vocal
inflections produced in speech under
stress of feeling, showing thus a recog-
nition of the law which Herbert Spen-
cer formulated two hundred and fifty
years later.

The music which these men pro-
duced and admired sounds to us mo-
notonous in the extreme, for what little
melody there is in it is hi the choruses,
which they failed to emancipate from
the ecclesiastical art, and which for that
reason were as stiff and inelastic as the
music which in their controversies with
the musicians they condemned with
vigor. Yet within their invention there
lay an entirely new world of music.
Out of it came the solo style, a song
with instrumental accompaniment of a
kind unknown to the church composers.
Out of it, too, came harmony as an in-
dependent factor in music instead of
an accident of the simultaneous flow of I
melodies ; and out of it came declama-
tion, which drew its life from the text.

At the Opera

The recitatives which they wrote had
the fluency of spoken words and were
not retarded by melodic forms. The
new style did not accomplish what its
creators hoped for, but it gave birth to
Italian opera and emancipated music in
a large measure from the formalism that
dominated it so long as it belonged
exclusively to the composers for the
church.

Detailed study of the progress of
opera from the first efforts of the Floren-
tines to Wagner's dramas would carry
us too far afield to serve the purposes of
this book. My aim is to fix the attitude
proper, or at least useful, to the opera
audience of to-day. The excursion into
history which I have made has but the
purpose to give the art-form a reputable
standing in court, and to explain the
motives which prompted the revolution
accomplished by Wagner. As to the
elements which compose an opera, only
those need particular attention which
are illustrated in the current repertory.
Unlike the opera audiences of two
centuries ago, we are not required to
distinguish carefully between the vari-

219

CHAP.
VII.

Fluent rec-
itatives.

Predeces-
sors of \
Wagner.

220

CHAP.
VII.

Old oper-
atic dis-
tinctions.

Opera
tufa.

Opera
seria.

Recitative.

How to Listen to Music

ous styles of opera in order to under-
stand why the composer adopted a par-
ticular manner and certain fixed forms
in each. The old distinctions between
Opera seria, Opera buffa, and Opera semi-
seria perplex us no more. Only because
of the perversion of the time-honored
Italian epithet buffa by the French mon-
grel Ope'ra bouffe is it necessary to ex-
plain that the classic Opera buffa was a
polite comedy, whose musical integu-
ment did not of necessity differ from
that of Opera seria except in this that
the dialogue was carried on in " dry "
recitative (recitativo secco, or parlante] in
the former, and a more measured decla-
mation with orchestral accompaniment
(recitativo stromentatd) in the latter. So
far as subject-matter was concerned the
classic distinction between tragedy and
comedy served. The dry recitative was
supported by chords played by a double-
bass and harpsichord or pianoforte. In
London, at a later period, for reasons of
doubtful validity, these chords came to
be played on a double-bass and violon-
cello, as we occasionally hear them to-
day.

At the Opera

221

Shakespeare has taught us to accept

CHAP.

an infusion of the comic element in

VII.

plays of a serious cast, but Shake-

speare was an innovator, a Romanticist,

and, measured by old standards, his

dramas are irregular. The Italians,

who followed classic models, for a rea-

son amply explained by the genesis of

the art-form, rigorously excluded com-

edy from serious operas, except as in-

termezzi, until they hit upon a third

classification, which they called Opera

Opera sem-

semiseria, in which a serious subject

iseria. '

was enlivened with comic episodes.

Our dramatic tastes being grounded

in Shakespeare, we should be inclined

to put down " Don Giovanni " as a

" Don Gio-

musical tragedy ; or, haunted by the

vanni."

Italian terminology, as Opera semiseria ;

but Mozart calls it Opera buffa, more in

deference to the librettist's work, I

fancy, than his own, for, as I have

suggested elsewhere,* the musician's

* " But no real student can have studied the score deep-

ly, or listened discriminatingly to a good performance,

without discovering that there is a tremendous chasm be-

tween the conventional aims of the Italian poet in the

book of the opera and the work which emerged from the

222

CHAP.
VII.

An Operc
bu/a.

How to Listen to Music

imagination in the fire of composition
went far beyond the conventional fancy
of the librettist in the finale of that most
wonderful work.

It is well to remember that " Don
Giovanni " is an Opera buffa when
watching the buffooneries of Leporello,

composer's profound imagination. Da Ponte contem-
plated a drammagiocoso ; Mozart humored him until his
imagination came within the shadow cast before by the
catastrophe, and then he transformed the poet's comedy
into a tragedy of crushing power. The climax of Da
Ponte's ideal is reached in a picture of the dissolute
Don wrestling in idle desperation with a host of spec-
tacular devils, and finally disappearing through a trap,
while fire bursts out on all sides, the thunders roll, and
Leporello gazes on the scene, crouched in a comic atti-
tude of terror, under the table. Such a picture satisfied
the tastes of the public of his time, and that public
found nothing incongruous in a return to the scene im-
mediately afterward of all the characters save the repro-
bate, who had gone to his reward, to hear a description
of the catastrophe from the buffoon under the table, and
platitudinously to moralize that the perfidious wretch,
having been stored away safely in the realm of Pluto
and Proserpine, nothing remained for them to do ex-
cept to raise their voices in the words of the " old

song,"

41 Questo I ilfin di chi fa mal :
E deiperfidi la morte
Alia vita i sempre ugual"

"New York Musical Season, 1889-90."

At the Opera

for that alone justifies them. The
French have Grand Optra, in which
everything is sung to orchestra accom-
paniment, there being neither spoken
dialogue nor dry recitative, and Optra
comique, in which the dialogue is spoken.
The latter corresponds with the honor-
able German term Singspiel, and one will
not go far astray if he associate both
terms with the English operas of Wal-
lace and Balfe, save that the French and
Germans have generally been more deft
in bridging over the chasm between
speech and song than their British
rivals. Optra comique has another char-
acteristic, its denouement must be happy.
Formerly the Theatre national de V Optra-
Comique in Paris was devoted exclu-
sively to Optra comique as thus defined
(it has since abolished the distinction
and Grand Optra may be heard there
now), and, therefore, when Ambroise
Thomas brought forward his " Mig-
non," Goethe's story was found to be
changed so that Mignon recovered and
was married to Wilhelm Meister at the
end. The Germans are seldom pleased
with the transformations which their

223

CHAP.
VII.

French
Grand
Oplra,

Optra
mique.

224

CHAP.
VII.

Faust.'

Grosse
Oper.

Comic
opera and
operetta,.

How to Listen to Music

literary masterpieces are forced to un-
dergo at the hands of French librettists.
They still refuse to call Gounod's
" Faust " by that name ; if you wish to
hear it in Germany you must go to the
theatre when " Margarethe " is per-
formed. Naturally they fell indig-
nantly afoul of " Mignon," and to pla-
cate them we have a second finale, a
denouement allemand, provided by the
authors, in which Mignon dies as she
ought.

Of course the Grosse Oper of the
Germans is the French Grand Optra
and the English grand opera but all
the English terms are ambiguous, and
everything that is done in Covent Gar-
den in London or the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York is set down
as "grand opera," just as the vilest imi-
tations of the French vaudevilles or Eng-
lish farces with music are called " comic
operas." In its best estate, say in the
delightful works of Gilbert and Sullivan,
what is designated as comic opera ought
to be called operetta, which is a piece
in which the forms of grand opera are
imitated, or travestied, the dialogue is

At the Opera

spoken, and the purpose of the play is to
satirize a popular folly. Only in method,
agencies, and scope does such an oper-
etta (the examples of Gilbert and Sulli-
van are in mind) differ from comedy in
its best conception, as a dramatic com-
position which aims to " chastise manners
with a smile " (" Ridendo castigat mores").
Its present degeneracy, as illustrated in
the Optra bouffe of the French and the
concoctions of the would-be imitators
of Gilbert and Sullivan, exemplifies lit-
tle else than a pursuit far into the depths
of the method suggested by a friend to
one of Lully's imitators who had ex-
pressed a fear that a ballet written, but
not yet performed, would fail. "You
must lengthen the dances and shorten
the ladies' skirts," he said. The Ger-
mans make another distinction based
on the subject chosen for the story.
Spohr's " Jessonda," Weber's " Frei-
schiitz," " Oberon," and " Euryanthe,"
Marschner's " Vampyr," " Templer und
Jiidin," and " Hans Heiling " are " Ro-
mantic" operas. The significance of
this classification in operatic literature
may be learned from an effort which I

225

CHAP.
VII.

Opera
bouffe.

Romantic
operas.

226

CHAP.
VII.

Modern
designa-
tions.

German
opera and
Wagner.

How to Listen to Music

have made in another chapter to dis-
cuss the terms Classic and Romantic as
applied to music. Briefly stated, the
operas mentioned are put in a class by
themselves (and their imitations with
them) because their plots were drawn
from the romantic legends of the Middle
Ages, in which the institutions of chiv-
alry, fairy lore, and supernaturalism
play a large part.

These distinctions we meet in reading
about music. As I have intimated, we do
not concern ourselves much with them
now. In New York and London the
people speak of Italian, English, and
German opera, referring generally to
the language employed in the perform-
ance. But there is also in the use of
the terms an underlying recognition of
differences in ideals of performance. As
all operas sung in the regular seasons at
Covent Garden and the Metropolitan
Opera House are popularly spoken of as
Italian operas, so German opera popu-
larly means Wagner's lyric dramas, in
the first instance, and a style of perform-
ance which grew out of Wagner's in-
fluence in the second. As compared

At the Opera

with Italian opera, in which the princi-
pal singers are all and the ensemble noth-
ing, it means, mayhap, inferior vocalists
but better actors in the principal parts,
a superior orchestra and chorus, and a
more conscientious effort on the part
of conductor, stage manager, and ar-
tists, from first to last, to lift the gen-
eral effect above the conventional level
which has prevailed for centuries in the
Italian opera houses.

In terminology, as well as in artistic
aim, Wagner's lyric dramas round out a
cycle that began with the works of the
Florentine reformers of the sixteenth
century. Wagner called his later operas
Musikdramen, wherefore he was sound-
ly abused and ridiculed by his critics.
When the Italian opera first appeared
it was called Dramma per musica, or
Melodramma, or Tragedia per musica, all
of which terms stand in Italian for the
conception that Musikdrama stands for
in German. The new thing had been
in existence for half a century, and was
already on the road to the degraded
level on which we shall find it when we
come to the subject of operatic singing,

227

CHAP.
VII.

Wagner's ,
"Musik- \
drama. "

228

CHAP.
VII.

Modern
Italian ter-
minology.

Recitative.

How to Listen to Music

before it came to be called Opera in
musica, of which " opera " is an abbrevi-
ation. Now it is to be observed that
the composers of all countries, having
been taught to believe that the dra-
matic contents of an opera have some
significance, are abandoning the vague
term " opera " and following Wagner in
his adoption of the principles underly-
ing the original terminology. Verdi
called his " Aida " an Opera in quattro
atti, but his " Otello " he designated
a lyric drama (Dramma lirico), his
" Falstaff " a lyric comedy (Commedia
lirica), and his example is followed
by the younger Italian composers,
such as Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and
Puccini.

In the majority of the operas of the
current list the vocal element illustrates
an amalgamation of the archaic recita-
tive and aria. The dry form of rec-
itative is met with now only in a few
of the operas which date back to the
last century or the early years of the
present. " Le Nozze di Figaro," " Don
Giovanni," and " II Barbiere di Siviglia"
are the most familiar works in which it

At the Opera

is employed, and in the second of these
it is used only by the bearers of the
comedy element. The dissolute Don
chatters glibly in it with Zerlina, but
when Donna Anna and Don Ottavio
converse, it is in the recitative stromen-
tato.

In both forms recitative is the vehicle
for promoting the action of the play,
preparing its incidents, and paving the
way for the situations and emotional
states which are exploited, promul-
gated, and dwelt upon in the set music
pieces. Its purpose is to maintain the
play in an artificial atmosphere, so that
the transition from dialogue to song
may not be so abrupt as to disturb the
mood of the listener. Of all the factors
in an opera, the dry recitative is the
most monotonous. It is not music, but
speech about to break into music. Un-
less one is familiar with Italian and
desirous of following the conversation,
which we have been often told is not
necessary to the enjoyment of an opera,
its everlasting use of stereotyped falls
and intervallic turns, coupled with the
strumming of arpeggioed cadences on

229

CHAP.
VII.

The object
of recita-
tive.

230

CHAP.
VII.

Defects
of the
recitative.

What it
can do.

How to Listen to Music

the pianoforte (or worse, double-bass
and violoncello), makes it insufferably
wearisome to the listener. Its expres-
sion is fleeting only for the moment.
It lacks the sustained tones and struct-
ural symmetry essential to melody, and
therefore it cannot sustain a mood. It
makes efficient use of only one of the
fundamental factors of vocal music
variety of pitch and that in a rudi-
mentary way. It is specifically a prod-
uct of the Italian language, and best
adapted to comedy in that language.
Spoken with the vivacity native to it
in the drama, dry recitative is an im-
possibility in English. It is only in the
more measured and sober gait proper to
oratorio that we can listen to it in the
vernacular without thought of incon-
gruity. Yet it may be made most ad-
mirably to preserve the characteristics
of conversation, and even illustrate
Spencer's theory of the origin of music.
Witness the following brief example
from " Don Giovanni," in which the vi-
vacity of the master is admirably con-
trasted with the lumpishness of his ser-
vant:

At the Opera

Sempre totto voce,

DON GIOVANNI.

LEPOKBLLO.

e-po-rel - lo, o - ve seif Son qui per
Le po - rel - lo, where are you ? I'm here and

D. G.

LEP.

:p p-

^

di* - gra - zi - a! e vo - if Son-qui. Chi I

more' s the pit-y! and you, Sir? Here too. Who's

v

[=

11

nor -

to.

V

X
M

o, a

ec -

chio?

Che

tlo-

-J

been killed,

you

or the

old

one?

What

a

LEP.

?nan - da da bes tia ?
ques - tion, you boo - byl

il vec - chio. Bra - vo !
the old one. Bra - vo!

Of course it is left to the intelligence
and taste of the singers to bring out the
effects in a recitative, but in this speci-
men it ought to be noted how slug-
gishly the disgruntled Leporello replies
to the brisk question of Don Giovanni,
how correct is the rhetorical pause
in " you, or the old one ? " and the
greater sobriety which comes over the
manner of the Don as he thinks of the
murder just committed, and replies,
"the old one."

I am strongly inclined to the belief

231

CHAP.
VII.

An exam-
ple from
Mozart.

Its charac-
teristics.

232

CHAP.
VII.

Recitative
of some sort
necessary.

The speak-
ing voice
in opera.

How to Listen to Music

that in one form or the other, preferably
the accompanied, recitative is a neces-
sary integer in the operatic sum. That
it is possible to accustom one's self to
the change alternately from speech to
song we know from the experiences
made with German, French, and Eng-
lish operas, but these were not true
lyric dramas, but dramas with inci-
dental music. To be a real lyric drama
an opera ought to be musical through-
out, the voice being maintained from
beginning to end on an exalted plane.
The tendency to drop into the speaking
voice for the sake of dramatic effect
shown by some tragic singers does not
seem to me commendable. Wagner
relates with enthusiasm how Madame
Schroeder-Devrient in " Fidelio " was
wont to give supreme emphasis to the
phrase immediately preceding the
trumpet signal in the dungeon scene
("Another step, and you are dead!")
by speaking the last word " with an
awful accent of despair." He then
comments :

" The indescribable effect of this manifested itself
to all like an agonizing plunge from one sphere into

At the Opera

another, and its sublimity consisted in this, that
with lightning quickness a glimpse was given to us
of the nature of both spheres, of which one was the
ideal, the other the real."

I have heard a similar effect produced
by Herr Niemann and Madame Leh-
mann, but could not convince myself
that it was not an extremely venture-
some experiment. Madame Schroeder-
Devrient saw the beginning of the
modern methods of dramatic expres-
sion, and it is easy to believe that a
sudden change like that so well de-
fined by Wagner, made with her sweep-
ing voice and accompanied by her
plastic and powerful acting, was really
thrilling; but, I fancy, nevertheless,
that only Beethoven and the intensity of
feeling which pervades the scene saved
the audience from a disturbing sense of
the incongruity of the performance.

The development which has taken
place in the recitative has not only as-
sisted in elevating opera to the dignity
of a lyric drama by saving us from al-
ternate contemplation of the two spheres
of ideality and reality, but has also
made the factor itself an eloquent vehi-

2 33

CHAP.
VII.

Wagner
and

Schroeder-
Devrient.

Early
forms.

234

CHAP.
VII.

The dia-
logue of the
Floren-
tines.

An ex-
ample from
Peri.

How to Listen to Music

cle of dramatic expression. Save that
it had to forego the help of the instru-
ments beyond a mere harmonic sup-
port, the stilo rappresentativo, or musica
parlante, as the Florentines called their
musical dialogue, approached the sus-
tained recitative which we hear in the
oratorio and grand opera more closely
than it did the recitativo secco. Ever
and anon, already in the earliest works
(the " Eurydice " of Rinuccini as com-
posed by both Peri and Caccini) there
are passages which sound like rudimen-
tary melodies, but are charged with
vital dramatic expression. Note the
following phrase from Orpheus' s mono-
logue on being left in the infernal re-
gions by Venus, from Peri's opera, per-
formed A.D. 1600, in honor of the
marriage of Maria de' Medici to Henry
IV. of France :

voi, deh per pie - to, del mio mar -ti re

Che nel mi - se-ro cor di - mo - rae - ter - no,

La - cri - ma - te al mio pian-to om bre d'in-fer - not

At the Opera

Out of this style there grew within a
decade something very near the arioso,
and for all the purposes of our argu-
ment we may accept the melodic de-
vices by which Wagner carries on the
dialogue of his operas as an uncircum-
scribed arioso superimposed upon a
foundation of orchestral harmony ; for
example, Lokengrirfs address to the
swan, Elsas account of her dream. The
greater melodiousness of the recitative
stromentato, and the aid of the orchestra
when it began to assert itself as a factor
of independent value, soon enabled this
form of musical conversation to become
a reflector of the changing moods and
passions of the play, and thus the value
of the aria, whether considered as a
solo, or in its composite form as duet,
trio, quartet, or ensemble, was lessened.
The growth of the accompanied recita-
tive naturally brought with it emanci-
pation from the tyranny of the classical
aria. Wagner's reform had nothing to
do with that emancipation, which had
been accomplished before him, but
went, as we shall see presently, to a
liberation of the composers from all

2 35

CHAP.
VII.

Develop-
ment of the

The aria
supplanted.

236

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.

the formal dams which had clogged

VII.

the united flow of action and music.

We should, however, even while admir-

ing the achievements of modern com-

posers in blending these elements (and

I know of no more striking illustration

than the scene of the fat knight's dis-

comfiture in Ford's house in Verdi's

" Falstaff ") bear in mind that while we

may dream, of perfect union between

words and music, it is not always possi-

Music and

ble that action and music shall go hand

action.

in hand. Let me repeat what once I

wrote in a review of Cornelius's opera,

" Der Barbier von Bagdad : " *

" After all, of the constituents of an opera, action,

at least that form of it usually called incident, is

most easily spared. Progress in feeling, develop-

ment of the emotional element, is indeed essential

*

to variety of musical utterance, but nevertheless all

great operas have demonstrated that music is more

potent and eloquent when proclaiming an emo-

tional state than while seeking to depict progress

toward such a state. Even in the dramas of Wag-

ner the culminating musical moments are pre-

dominantly lyrical, as witness the love -duet in

'[Tristan/ the close of ' Das Rheingold,' Steg-

* " Review of the New York Musical Season, 1889-

9>" P- 75-

At the Opera

mund's song, the love-duet, and Wotan's farewell
in ' Die Walkiire,' the forest scene and final duet
in ' Siegfried,' and the death of Siegfried in
' Die Gotterdammerung.' It is in the nature of
music that this should be so. For the drama
which plays on the stage of the heart, music is a
more truthful language than speech ; but it can
stimulate movement and prepare the mind for an
incident better than it can accompany movement
and incident. Yet music that has a high degree of
emotional expressiveness, by diverting attention
from externals to the play of passion within the
breasts of the persons can sometimes make us for-
get the paucity of incident in a play. ' Tristan
und Isolde ' is a case in point. Practically, its out-
ward action is summed up in each of its three acts
by the same words : Preparation for a meeting of
the ill-starred lovers; the meeting. What is out-
side of this is mere detail; yet the effect of the
tragedy upon a listener is that of a play surcharged
with pregnant occurrence. It is the subtle al-
chemy of music that transmutes the psychological
action of the tragedy into dramatic incident."

For those who hold such a view with
me it will be impossible to condemn
pieces of set forms in the lyric drama.
Wagner still represents his art -work
alone, but in the influence which he
exerted upon contemporaneous com-
posers in Italy and France, as well as

237

CHAP.
VII.

How music
can replace
incident.

Set forms
not to be
condemned.

2 3 8

CHAP.
VII.

Wagner's
influence.

His or-
chestra.

How to Listen to Music

Germany, he is quite as significant
a figure as he is as the creator of the
Musikdrama. The operas which are most
popular in our Italian and French reper-
tories are those which benefited by the
liberation from formalism and the ex-
altation of the dramatic idea which he
preached and exemplified such works
as Gounod's " Faust," Verdi's " Aida "
and " Otello," and Bizet's " Carmen."
With that emancipation there came, as
was inevitable, new conceptions of the
province of dramatic singing as well as
new convictions touching the mission
of the orchestra. The instruments in
Wagner's latter-day works are quite
as much as the singing actors the ex-
positors of the dramatic idea, and in
the works of the other men whom I
have mentioned they speak a language
which a century ago was known
only to the orchestras of Gluck and
Mozart with their comparatively lim-
ited, yet eloquent, vocabulary. Coupled
with praise for the wonderful art of
Mesdames Patti and Melba (and I am
glad to have lived in their generation,
though they do not represent my ideal

At the Opera

in dramatic singing), we are accustomed
to hear lamentations over the decay of
singing. I have intoned such jeremiads
myself, and I do not believe that music
is suffering from a greater want to-day
than that of a more thorough train-
ing for singers. I marvel when I read
that Senesino sang cadences of fifty
seconds* duration ; that Ferri with a
single breath could trill upon each note
of two octaves, ascending and descend-
ing, and that La Bastardella's art was
equal to a perfect performance (perfect
in the conception of her day) of a flour-
ish like this :

239

CHAP.
VII.

feats.

La Bastar-

dellas

flourish.

240

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.
VII.

Character
of the op era
a century
and a half

I marvel, I say, at the skill, the gifts,
and the training which could accom-
plish such feats, but I would not have
them back again if they were to be em-
ployed in the old service. When Sene-
sino, Farinelli, Sassarelli, Ferri, and their
tribe dominated the stage, it strutted
with sexless Agamemnons and Caesars.
Telemachus, Darius, Nero, Cato, Alex-
ander, Scipio, and Hannibal ran around
on the boards as languishing lovers,
clad in humiliating disguises, singing
woful arias to their mistress's eye-
brows arias full of trills and scales and
florid ornaments, but void of feeling as
a problem in Euclid. Thanks very
largely to German influences, the opera

At the Opera

is returning to its original purposes.
Music is again become a means of dra-
matic expression, and the singers who
appeal to us most powerfully are those
who are best able to make song subserve
that purpose, and who to that end give
to dramatic truthfulness, to effective
elocution, and to action the attention
which mere voice and beautiful utter-
ance received in the period which is
called the Golden Age of singing, but
which was the Leaden Age of the lyric
drama.

For seventy years the people of New
York, scarcely less favored than those
of London, have heard nearly all the
great singers of Europe. Let me talk
about some of them, for I am trying to
establish some ground on which my
readers may stand when they try to
form an estimate of the singing which
they are privileged to hear in the opera
houses of to-day. Madame Malibran
was a member of the first Italian com-
pany that ever sang here.' Madame
Cinti-Damoreau came in 1844, Bosio in
1849, Jenny Lind in 1850, Sontag in
1853, Grisi in 1854, La Grange in 1855,

241

CHAP.
VII.

Music and

dramatic

expression.

Singers
heard in
New York.

2 4 2

CHAP.
VII.

Grisi.

How to Listen to Music

Frezzolini in 1857, Piccolomini in 1858,
Nilsson in 1870, Lucca in 1872, Titiens in
1876, Gerster in 1878, and Sembrich in
1883. I omit the singers of the German
opera as belonging to a different cate-
gory. Adelina Patti was always with
us until she made her European debut
in 1 86 1, and remained abroad twenty
years. Of the men who were the ar-
tistic associates of these prime donne,
mention may be made of Mario, Bene-
detti, Corsi, Salvi, Ronconi, Formes,
Brignoli, Amadeo, Coletti, and Cam-
panini, none of whom, excepting Mario,
was of first-class importance compared
with the women singers.

Nearly all of these singers, even those
still living and remembered by the
younger generation of to-day, exploited
their gifts in the operas of Rossini, Bel-
lini, Donizetti, the early Verdi, and Mey-
erbeer. Grisi was acclaimed a great
dramatic singer, and it is told of her
that once in " Norma " she frightened
the tenor who sang the part of Pollio by
the fury of her acting. But measured
by the standards of to-day, say that set
by Calve's Carmen, it must have been a

At the Opera

simple age that could be impressed by CHAP.
the tragic power of anyone acting the
part of Bellini's Druidical priestess.
The surmise is strengthened by the cir-
cumstance that Madame Grisi created
a sensation in " II Trovatore " by show-
ing signs of agitation in the tower scene,
walking about the stage during Man-
ricos " Ah ! che la morte ognora" as if she
would fain discover the part of the castle
where her lover was imprisoned. The
chief charm of Jenny Lind in the mem- Jenny
ory of the older generation is the pa-
thos with which she sang simple songs.
Mendelssohn esteemed her greatly as a
woman and artist, but he is quoted as
once remarking to Chorley : " I cannot
think why she always prefers to be in
a bad theatre." Moscheles, recording
his impressions of her in Meyerbeer's
" Camp of Silesia " (now " L'Etoile du
Nord"), reached the climax of his praise
in the words : " Her song with the two
concertante flutes is perhaps the most
incredible feat in the way of bravura
singing that can possibly be heard."
She was credited, too, with fine powers
as an actress; and that she possessed

243

244

CHAP.
VII.

Lilli
Lehmann.

Sontag.

How to Listen to Music

them can easily be believed, for few of
the singers whom I have mentioned had
so early and intimate an association with
the theatre as she. Her repugnance to
it in later life she attributed to a preju-
dice inherited from her mother. A vastly
different heritage is disclosed by Ma-
dame Lehmann's devotion to the drama,
a devotion almost akin to religion. I have
known her to go into the scene-room
of the Metropolitan Opera House in
New York and search for mimic stumps
and rocks with which to fit out a scene
in " Siegfried," in which she was not
even to appear. That, like her super-
human work at rehearsals, was " for the
good of the cause," as she expressed it.
Most amiable are the memories that
cluster around the name of Sontag,
whose career came to a grievous close
by her sudden death in Mexico in 1854.
She was a German, and the early part
of her artistic life was influenced by
German ideals, but it is said that only
in the music of Mozart and Weber,
which aroused in her strong national
emotion, did she sing dramatically.
For the rest she used her light voice,

At the Opera

which had an extraordinary range, brill-
iancy, and flexibility, very much as
Patti and Melba use their voices to-day
in mere unfeeling vocal display.

" She had an extensive soprano voice," says Ho-
garth ; " not remarkable for power, but clear, brill-
iant, and singularly flexible ; a quality which seems
to have led her (unlike most German singers in
general) to cultivate the most florid style, and even
to follow the bad example set by Catalani, of seek-
ing to convert her voice into an instrument, and to
astonish the public by executing the violin variations
on Rode's air and other things of that stamp."

Madame La Grange had a voice of
wide compass, which enabled her to sing
contralto roles as well as soprano, but I
have never heard her dramatic powers
praised. As for Piccolomini, read of
her where you will, you shall find that
she was " charming." She was lovely
to look upon, and her acting in soubrette
parts was fascinating. Until Melba
came Patti was for thirty years peer-
less as a mere vocalist. She belongs,
as did Piccolomini and Sontag, to the
comic genre; so did Sembrich and
Gerster, the latter of whom never knew
it. I well remember how indignant she

245

CHAP.
VII.

La Grange.

Piccolo-
mini.

Adelina
Patti.

246

CHAP.
VII.

Gcrster.

Lucca and
Nilsson.

Sembrich.

How to Listen to Music

became on one occasion, in her first
American season, at a criticism which
I wrote of her Amina in " La Sonnam-
bula," a performance which remains
among- my loveliest and most fragrant
recollections. I had made use of Cata-
lani's remark concerning Sontag : " Son
genre est petit, mats elle est unique dans
son genre" and applied it to her style.
She almost flew into a passion. " Mon
genre est grand!" said she, over and
over again, while Dr. Gardini, her hus-
band, tried to pacify her. " Come to
see my Marguerite next season." Now,
Gounod's Marguerite does not quite be-
long to the heroic rdles, though we can
all remember how Lucca thrilled us by
her intensity of action as well as of
song, and how Madame Nilsson sent
the blood out of our cheeks, though she
did stride through the opera like a com-
bination of the grande dame and Ary
Scheffer's spirituelle pictures ; but such
as it is, Madame Gerster achieved a
success of interest only, and that be-
cause of her strivings for originality.
Sembrich and Gerster, when they were
first heard in New York, had as much

At the Opera

execution as Melba or Nilsson ; but
their voices had less emotional power
than that of the latter, and less beauty
than that of the former beauty of the
kind that might be called classic, since
it is in no way dependent on feeling.

Patti, Lucca, Nilsson, and Gerster
sang in the operas in which Melba and
Eames sing to-day, and though the
standard of judgment has been changed
in the last twenty -five years by the
growth of German ideals, I can find no
growth of potency in the performances
of the representative women of Italian
and French opera, except in the case of
Madame Calv6. For the development
of dramatic ideals we must look to the
singers of German affiliations or ante-
cedents, Mesdames Materna, Lehmann,
Sucher, and Nordica. As for the men
of yesterday and to-day, no lover, I am
sure, of the real lyric drama would
give the declamatory warmth and
gracefulness of pose and action which
mark the performances of M. Jean de
Reszke for a hundred of the high notes
of Mario (for one of which, we are told,
he was wont to reserve his powers

2 47

CHAP.
VII.

Melba and
Eames.

Calvt.

Dramatic
singers.

Jean de
Resxke.

248

CHAP.
VII.

Edouardde
Reszke and
Planfon.

Wagner s
operas.

How to Listen to Music

all evening), were they never so lovely.
Neither does the fine, resonant, equable
voice of Edouard de Reszke or the
finished style of Planon leave us with
curious longings touching the voices
and manners of Lablache and Formes.
Other times, other manners, in music
as in everything else. The great sing-
ers of to-day are those who appeal to
the taste of to-day f and that taste differs,
as the clothes which we wear differ,
from the style in vogue in the days of
our ancestors.

A great deal of confusion has crept
into the public mind concerning Wag-
ner and his works by the failure to
differentiate between his earlier and
later creations. No injustice is done
the composer by looking upon his
" Flying Dutchman," " Tannhauser,"
and " Lohengrin " as operas. We find
the dramatic element lifted into noble
prominence in " Tannhauser," and ad-
mirable freedom in the handling of the
musical factors in " Lohengrin," but
they .must, nevertheless, be listened to
as one would listen to the operas of
Weber, Marschner, or Meyerbeer.

At the Opera

They are, in fact, much nearer to the
conventional operatic type than to the
works which came after them, and were
called Musikdramen. " Music drama "
is an awkward phrase, and I have taken
the liberty of substituting " lyric drama "
for it, and as such I shall designate
" Tristan und Isolde," " Die Meister-
singer," " Der Ring des Nibelungen,"
and " Parsifal." In these works Wagner
exemplified his reformatory ideas and
accomplished a regeneration of the
lyric drama, as we found it embodied
in principle in the Greek tragedy and
the Dramma per musica of the Floren-
tine scholars. Wagner's starting-point
is, that in the opera music had usurped
a place which did not belong to it.* It
was designed to be a means and had
become an end. In the drama he found
a combination of poetry, music, panto-
mime, and scenery, and he held that
these factors ought to co-operate on
a basis of mutual dependence, the in-
spiration of all being dramatic expres-

* See " Studies in the Wagnerian Drama," chap-
ter I.

249

CHAP.
VII.

Wagner's

lyric

dramas.

His
theories.

250

CHAP.
VII.

The mis-
sion of
music.

Distinc-
tions abol-
ished.

The

typical

phrases.

How to Listen to Music

sion. Music, therefore, ought to be
subordinate to the text in which the
dramatic idea is expressed, and simply
serve to raise it to a higher power by-
giving it greater emotional life. So,
also, it ought to vivify pantomime and
accompany the stage pictures. In or-
der that it might do all this, it had to
be relieved of the shackles of formal-
ism ; only thus could it move with the
same freedom as the other elements
consorted with it in the drama. There-
fore, the distinctions between recitative
and aria were abolished, and an " endless
melody " took the place of both. An
exalted form of speech is borne along
on a flood of orchestral music, which,
quite as much as song, action, and
scenery concerns itself with the exposi-
tion of the drama. That it may do this
the agencies, spiritual as well as ma-
terial, which are instrumental in the
development of the play, are identified
with certain melodic phrases, out of
which the musical fabric is woven.
These phrases are the much mooted,
much misunderstood " leading motives "
typical phrases I call them. Wagner

At the Opera

has tried to make them reflect the
character or nature of the agencies with
which he has associated them, and
therefore we find the giants in the
Niblung tetralogy symbolized in heavy,
slowly moving, cumbersome phrases ;
the dwarfs have two phrases, one sug-
gesting their occupation as smiths, by its
hammering rhythm, and the other their
intellectual habits, by its suggestion
of brooding contemplativeness. I can-
not go through the catalogue of the
typical phrases which enter into the
musical structure of the works which I
have called lyric dramas as contra-dis-
tinguished from operas. They should,
of course, be known to the student of
Wagner, for thereby will he be helped
to understand the poet-composer's pur-
poses, but I would fain repeat the
warning which I uttered twice in my
" Studies in the Wagnerian Drama : "

" It cannot be too forcibly urged that if we con-
fine our study of Wagner to the forms and names
of the phrases out of which he constructs his mu'
sical fabric, we shall, at the last, have enriched
our minds with a thematic catalogue and nothing
else. We shall remain guiltless of knowledge un-

251

CHAP.
VII.

Character-
istics of
some
motives.

252

CHAP.
VII.

The

phrases
should be
studied.

The ques-
tion of ef-
fectiveness.

How to Listen to Music

less we learn something of the nature of those
phrases by noting the attributes which lend them
propriety and fitness, and can recognize, measur-
ably at least, the reasons for their introduction and
development. Those attributes give character and
mood to the music constructed out of the phrases.
If we are able to feel the mood, we need not care
how the phrases which produce it have been
labelled. If we do not feel the mood, we may
memorize the whole thematic catalogue of Wolzo-
gen and have our labor for our pains. It would be
better to know nothing about the phrases, and con-
tent one's self with simple sensuous enjoyment
than to spend one's time answering the baldest of
all the riddles of Wagner's orchestra ' What am I
playing now ? '

" The ultimate question concerning the correct-
ness or effectiveness of Wagner's system of compo-
sition must, of course, be answered along with the
question : ' Does the composition, as a whole,
touch the emotions, quicken the fancy, fire the im-
agination ? ' If it does these things, we may, to a
great extent, if we wish, get along without the in-
tellectual processes of reflection and comparison
which are conditioned upon a recognition of the
themes and their uses. But if we put aside this in-
tellectual activity, we shall deprive ourselves, among
other things, of the pleasures which it is the prov-
ince of memory to give ; and the exercise of memory
is called for by music much more urgently than by
any other art, because of its volatile nature and the
rdle which repetition plays in it."

VIII

Choirs and Choral Music

NO one would go far astray who
should estimate the extent and
sincerity of a community's musical
culture by the number of its chorus
singers. Some years ago it was said
that over three hundred cities and
towns in Germany contained singing
societies and orchestras devoted to the
cultivation of choral music. In the
United States, where there are com-
paratively a small number of instru-
mental musicians, there has been a
wonderful development of singing so-
cieties within the last generation, and it
is to this fact largely that the notable
growth in the country's knowledge and
appreciation of high-class music is due.
No amount of mere hearing and study
can compare in influence with participa-

253

Choirs a
touchstone
of culture.

254

CHAP.
VIII.

The value
of choir
singing.

Singing
societies
and or-
chestras.

How to Listen to Music

tion in musical performance. Music is
an art which rests on love. It is beau-
tiful sound vitalized by feeling, and it
can only be grasped fully through man's
emotional nature. There is no quicker
or surer way to get to the heart of a
composition than by performing it, and
since participation in chorus singing
is of necessity unselfish and creative of
sympathy, there is no better medium of
musical culture than membership in a
choir. It was because he realized this
that Schumann gave the advice to all
students of music: " Sing diligently in
choirs ; especially the middle voices,
for this will make you musical."

There is no community so small or
so ill-conditioned that it cannot main-
tain a singing society. Before a city
can give sustenance to even a small
body of instrumentalists it must be large
enough and rich enough to maintain a
theatre from which those instrumental-
ists can derive their support. There
can be no dependence upon amateurs,
for people do not study the oboe, bas-
soon, trombone, or double-bass for
amusement. Amateur violinists and

Choirs and Choral Music

amateur flautists there are in plenty,
but not amateur clarinetists and French-
horn players ; but if the love for music
exists in a community, a dozen families
shall suffice to maintain a choral club.
Large numbers are therefore not essen-
tial ; neither is wealth. Some of the
largest and finest choirs in the world
flourish among the Welsh miners in
the United States and Wales, fostered
by a native love for the art and the na-
tional institution called Eisteddfod.

The lines on which choral culture has
proceeded in the United States are two,
of which the more valuable, from an
artistic point of view, is that of the ora-
torio, which went out from New Eng-
land. The other originated in the Ger-
man cultivation of the Mdnnergesang,
the importance of which is felt more in
the extent of the culture, prompted as it
is largely by social considerations, than
in the music sung, which is of necessity
of a lower grade than that composed for
mixed voices. It is chiefly in the im-
pulse which German Mannergesang car-
ried into all the corners of the land, and
especially the impetus which the festi-

CHAP.
VIII.

Neither
numbers
nor wealth
necessary.

Lines of
choral cult-
ure in the
United
States.

CHAP.
VIII.

Church
and ora-
torio.

Secular
choirs.

How to Listen to Music

vals of the German singers gave to the
sections in which they have been held
for half a century, that this form of cult-
ure is interesting.

The cultivation of oratorio music
sprang naturally from the Church, and
though it is now chiefly in the hands of
secular societies, the biblical origin of
the vast majority of the texts used in
the works which are performed, and
more especially the regular perform-
ances of Handel's " Messiah " in the
Christmastide, have left the notion, more
or less distinct, in the public mind, that
oratorios are religious functions. Nev-
ertheless (or perhaps because of this fact)
the most successful choral concerts in the
United States are those given by orato-
rio societies. The cultivation of cho-
ral music which is secular in character
is chiefly in the hands of small organi-
zations, whose concerts are of a semi-
private nature and are enjoyed by the
associate members and invited guests.
This circumstance is deserving of notice
as a characteristic feature of choral mu-
sic in America, though it has no partic-
ular bearing upon this study, which

Choirs and Choral Music

must concern itself with choral organ-
izations, choral music, and choral per-
formances in general.

Organizations of the kind in view dif-
fer from instrumental in being composed
of amateurs ; and amateur choir-singing
is no older anywhere than in the United
States. Two centuries ago and more
the singing of catches and glees was a
common amusement among the gentler
classes in England, but the performances
of the larger forms of choral music were
in the hands of professional choristers
who were connected with churches,
theatres, schools, and other public insti-
tutions. Naturally, then, the choral
bodies were small. Choirs of hundreds
and thousands, such as take part in the
festivals of to-day, are a product of a
later time.

" When Bach and Handel wrote their Passions,
Church Cantatas, and Oratorios, they could only
dream of such majestic performances as those
works receive now ; and it is one of the miracles of
art that they should have written in so masterly a
manner for forces that they could never hope to
control. Who would think, when listening to the
4 Hallelujah ' of ' The Messiah,' or the great double
choruses of ^ Israel in Egypt,' in which the voice

257

CHAF.
VIII.

Amateur

choirs

originated

in the

United

States.

The size of
old choirs.

2 5 8

CHAP.
VIII.

Handel's
choirs.

Choirs a

century

ago.

How to Listen to Music

of the composer is ' as the voice of a great mul-
titude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the
voice of many thunderings, saying, " Alleluia, for
the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! ' " that these
colossal compositions were never heard by Handel
from any chorus larger than the most modest of
our church choirs ? At the last performance of
' The Messiah ' at which Handel was advertised to
appear (it was for the benefit of his favorite charity,
the Foundling Hospital, on May 3, 1759 he died
before the time, however), the singers, including
principals, numbered twenty-three, while the instru-
mentalists numbered thirty-three. At the first great
Handel Commemoration, in Westminster Abbey,
in 1784, the choir numbered two hundred and
seventy-five, the band two hundred and fifty ; and
this was the most numerous force ever gathered to-
gether for a single performance in England up to
that time.

" In 1791 the Commemoration was celebrated by
a choir of five hundred and a band of three hundred
and seventy -five. In May, 1786, Johann Adam
Hiller, one of Bach's successors as cantor of the St.
Thomas School in Leipsic, directed what was
termed a Massenauffiihrung of ' The Messiah,' in
the Domkirche, in Berlin. His ' masses ' con-
sisted of one hundred and eighteen singers and one
hundred and eighty-six instrumentalists. In Han-
del's operas, and sometimes even in his oratorios,
the tutti meant, in his time, little more than a
union of all the solo singers; and even Bach's
Passion music and church cantatas, which seem as
much designed for numbers as the double choruses

Choirs and Choral Music

259

of ' Israel,' were rendered in the St. Thomas

CHAP.

Church by a ludicrously small choir. Of this fact a

VIII.

record is preserved in the archives of Leipsic. In

August, 1730, Bach submitted to the authorities a

Bach's

plan for a church choir of the pupils in his care. In

choir.

this plan his singers numbered twelve, there being

one principal and two ripienists in each voice ; with

characteristic modesty he barely suggests a prefer-

ence for sixteen. The circumstance that in the

same document he asked for at least eighteen in-

strumentalists (two more if flutes were used), taken

in connection with the figures given relative to the

' Messiah ' performances, gives an insight into the

relations between the vocal and the instrumental

parts of a choral performance in those days." *

This relation has been more than re-

versed since then, the orchestras at

modern oratorio performances seldom

being one -fifth as large as the choir.

Proportion

This difference, however, is due largely

of voices
and instru-

to the changed character of modern

ments.

music, that of to-day treating the instru-

ments as independent agents of ex-

pression instead of using them chiefly to

support the voices and add sonority to

the tonal mass, as was done by Handel

and most of the composers of his day.

* " Notes on the Cultivation of Choral Music," by

H. E. Krehbiel, p. 17.

2&0

CHAP.
VIII.

Glee

unions and
male
choirs.

How to Listen to Music

I omit from consideration the Glee
Unions of England, and the quartets,
which correspond to them, in this coun-
try. They are not cultivators of choral
music, and the music which they sing
is an insignificant factor in culture.
The male choirs, too, need not detain us
long, since it may be said without injus-
tice that their mission is more social
than artistic. In these choirs the sub-
division into parts is, as a rule, into
two tenor voices, first and second, and
two bass, first and second. In the glee
unions, the effect of whose singing is
fairly well imitated by the college clubs
of the United States (pitiful things, in-
deed, from an artistic point of view),
there is a survival of an old element in
the male alto singing above the melody
voice, generally in a painful falsetto.
This abomination is unknown to the
German part-songs for men's voices,
which are written normally, but are in
the long run monotonous in color for
want of the variety in timbre and regis-
ter which the female voices contribute
in a mixed choir.

Thre are choirs also composed ex-

Choirs and Choral Music

clusively of women, but they are even
more unsatisfactory than the male
choirs, for the reason that the absence
of the bass voice leaves their harmony
without sufficient foundation. Gener-
ally, music for these choirs is written
for three parts, two sopranos and con-
tralto, with the result that it hovers, sus-
pended like Mahomet's coffin, between
heaven and earth. When a fourth part
is added it is a second contralto, which
is generally carried down to the tones
that are hollow and unnatural.

The substitution of boys for women
in Episcopal Church choirs has grown
extensively within the last ten years in
the United States, very much to the
promotion of aesthetic sentimentality in
the congregations, but without improv-
ing the character of worship -music.
Boys' voices are practically limitless in
an upward direction, and are naturally
clear and penetrating. Ravishing effects
can be produced with them, but it is
false art to use passionless voices in mu-
sic conceived for the mature and emo-
tional voices of adults ; and very little of
the old English Cathedral music, written

261

CHAP.
VIII.

Women's
choirs.

Boys'
choirs.

262

CHAP.
VIII.

Mixed
choirs.

Origin of
amateur

How to Listen to Music

for choirs of boys and men, is preserved
in the service lists to-day.

The only satisfactory choirs are the
mixed choirs of men and women. Upon
them has devolved the cultivation of
artistic choral music in our public con-
cert-rooms. As we know such choirs
now, they are of comparatively recent
origin, and it is a singular commentary
upon the way in which musical history
is written, that the fact should have so
long been overlooked that the credit
of organizing the first belongs to the
United States. A little reflection will
show this fact, which seems somewhat
startling at first blush, to be entirely
natural. Large singing societies are of
necessity made up of amateurs, and the
want of professional musicians in Amer-
ica compelled the people to enlist ama-
teurs at a time when in Europe choral
activity rested on the church, theatre,
and institute choristers, who were prac-
tically professionals.

As the hitherto accepted record stands,
the first amateur singing society was
the Singakademie of Berlin, which Carl
Friedrich Fasch, accompanist to the roy-

Choirs and Choral Music

al flautist, Frederick the Great, called
into existence in 1791. A few dates will
show how slow the other cities of mu-
sical Germany were in following Berlin's
example. In 1818 there were only ten
amateur choirs in all Germany. Leip-
sic organized one in 1800, Stettin in 1800,
Miinster in 1804, Dresden in 1807, Pots-
dam in 1814, Bremen in 1815, Chemnitz
in 1817, Schwabisch-Hall in 1817, and
Innsbruck in 1818. The Berlin Sing-
akademie is still in existence, but so also
is the Stoughton Musical Society in
Stoughton, Mass., which was founded
on November 7, 1786. Mr. Charles C.
Perkins, historian of the Handel and
Haydn Society, whose foundation was
coincident with the sixth society in Ger-
many (Bremen, 1815), enumerates the
following predecessors of that venerable
organization : the Stoughton Musical
Society, 1786 ; Independent Musical So-
ciety, " established at Boston in the same
year, which gave a concert at King's
Chapel in 1788, and took part there in
commemorating the death of Washing-
ton (December 14, 1799) on his first suc-
ceeding birthday ; " the Franklin, 1804 I

26 3

CHAP.
VIII.

The Ger-
man record.

American
priority.

The

American

record.

264

CHAP.
VIII.

Choirs in
the West.

The size of
choirs.

How to Listen to Music

the Salem, 1806; Massachusetts Musical,
1807; Lock Hospital, 1812, and the Nor-
folk Musical, the date of whose founda-
tion is not given by Mr. Perkins.

When the Bremen Singakademie was
organized there were already choirs in
the United States as far west as Cincin-
nati. In that city they were merely
church choirs at first, but within a few
years they had combined into a large
body and were giving concerts at which
some of the choruses of Handel and
Haydn were sung. That their perform-
ances, as well as those of the New Eng-
land societies, were cruder than those of
their European rivals may well be be-
lieved, but with this I have nothing to do.
I am simply seeking to establish the pri-
ority of the United States in amateur
choral culture. The number of Ameri-
can cities in which oratorios are per-
formed annually is now about fifty.

In size mixed choirs ordinarily range
from forty voices to five hundred. It
were well if it were understood by chor-
isters as well as the public that numbers
merely are not a sign of merit in a sing-
ing society. So the concert-room be

Choirs and Choral Music

not too large, a choir of sixty well-trained
voices is large enough to perform almost
everything in choral literature with
good effect, and the majority of the best
compositions will sound better under
such circumstances than in large rooms
with large choirs. Especially is this
true of the music of the Middle Ages,
written for voices without instrumental
accompaniment, of which I shall have
something to say when the discussion
reaches choral programmes. There is
music, it is true, like much of Handel's,
the impressiveness of which is greatly
enhanced by masses, but it is not exten-
sive enough to justify the sacrifice of
correctness and finish in the perform-
ance to mere volume. The use of large
choirs has had the effect of developing
the skilfulness of amateur singers in an
astonishing degree, but there is, never-
theless, a point where weightiness of
tone becomes an obstacle to finished
execution. When Mozart remodelled
Handel's " Messiah " he was careful to
indicate that the florid passages (" divis-
ions " they used to be called in England)
should be sung by the solo voices alone,

265

CHAP.
VIII.

Large
numbers
not essen-
tial.

How " di-
visions "
used to be
sung.

266

CHAP.
VIII.

The

division
of choirs.

Five-part
music.

Eight
part.

How to Listen to Music

but nowadays choirs of five hundred
voices attack such choruses as " For
unto us a Child is Born," without the
slightest hesitation, even if they some-
times make a mournful mess of the " di-
visions."

The normal division of a mixed choir
is into four parts or voices soprano,
contralto, tenor, and bass; but corn-
posers sometimes write for more parts,
and the choir is subdivided to corre-
spond. The custom of writing for five,
six, eight, ten, and even more voices was
more common in the Middle Ages, the
palmy days of the a capella (i.e., for the
chapel, unaccompanied) style than it is
now, and, as a rule, a division into more
than four voices is not needed outside of
the societies which cultivate this old mu-
sic, such as the Musical Art Society in
New York, the Bach Choir in London,
and the Domchor in Berlin. In music
for five parts, one of the upper voices,
soprano or tenor, is generally doubled ;
for six, the ordinary distribution is into
two sopranos, two contraltos, tenor, and
bass. When eight voices are reached a
distinction is made according as there

Choirs and Choral Music

are to be eight real parts (a otto voci
reali), or two choruses of the four nor-
mal parts each (a otto voci in due cori
realt). In the first instance the arrange-
ment commonly is three sopranos, two
contraltos, two tenors, and one bass.
One of the most beautiful uses of the
double choir is to produce antiphonal
effects, choir answering to choir, both
occasionally uniting in the climaxes.
How stirring this effect can be made
may be observed in some of Bach's
compositions, especially those in which
he makes the division of the choir sub-
serve a dramatic purpose, as in the first
chorus of "The Passion according to
St. Matthew," where the two choirs,
one representing Daughters of Zion, the
other Believers, interrogate and answer
each other thus :

I. " Come, ye daughters, weep for anguish ;

See Him !
II. "Whom?
I. " The Son of Man.

See Him !
II. "How?
I. " So like a lamb.

See it !
II. "What?

267

CHAP.
VIII.

Antipho-
nal music.

Bach's "St.
Matthew
Passion. "

268

CHAP.
VIII.

Antiphony
in a motet.

Excellence
in choral
singing.

How to Listen to Music

I. " His love untold.

Look!

II. "Look where?
I. " Our guilt behold."

Another most striking instance is in
the same master's motet, " Sing ye to
the Lord," which is written for two
choirs of four parts each. (In the ex-
ample from the " St. Matthew Passion "
there is a third choir of soprano voices
which sings a chorale while the dra-
matic choirs are conversing.) In the
motet the first choir begins a fugue, in
the midst of which the second choir is
heard shouting jubilantly, " Sing ye !
Sing ye ! Sing ye ! " Then the choirs
change roles, the first delivering the in-
junction, the second singing the fugue.
In modern music, composers frequently
consort a quartet of solo voices, so-
prano, contralto, tenor, and bass, with a
four-part chorus, and thus achieve fine
effects of contrast in dynamics and
color, as well as antiphonal.

The question is near : What consti-
tutes excellence in a choral perform-
ance? To answer: The same qualities
that constitute excellence in an orches-

Choirs and Choral Music

tral performance, will scarcely suffice,
except as a generalization. A higher
degree of harmonious action is exacted
of a body of singers than of a body of
instrumentalists. Many of the parts in
a symphony are played by a single
instrument. Community of voice be-
longs only to each of the five bodies of
string -players. In a chorus there are
from twelve to one hundred and fifty
voices, or even more, united in each
part. This demands the effacement of
individuality in a chorus, upon the
assertion of which, in a band, under the
judicious guidance of the conductor,
many of the effects of color and ex-
pression depend. Each group in a
choir must strive for homogeneity of
voice quality; each singer must sink
the ego in the aggregation, yet employ
it in its highest potency so far as the
mastery of the technics of singing is
concerned. In cultivating precision of
attack (z>., promptness in beginning a
tone and leaving it off), purity of intona-
tion (i.e., accuracy or justness of pitch
" singing in tune " according to the
popular phrase), clearness of enuncia-

269

CHAP.
VIII.

Community
of action.

Individual-
ism.

2 7

CHAP.
VIII.

Dynamics.

Beauty of
tone.

Contralto
voices.

How to Listen to Music

tion, and careful attention to all the
dynamic gradations of tone, from very
soft up to very loud, and all shades of
expression between, in the development
of that gradual augmentation of tone
called crescendo, and the gradual diminu-
tion called diminuendo, the highest order
of individual skill is exacted from every
chorister ; for upon individual perfection
in these things depends the collective
effect which it is the purpose of the
conductor to achieve. Sensuous beauty
of tone, even in large aggregations, is
also dependent to a great degree upon
careful and proper emission of voice by
each individual, and it is because the
contralto part in most choral music,
being a middle part, lies so easily in the
voices of the singers that the contralto
contingent in American choirs, espe-
cially, so often attracts attention by the
charm of its tone. Contralto voices are
seldom forced into the regions which
compel so great a physical strain that
beauty and character must be sacrificed
to mere accomplishment of utterance,
as is frequently the case with the so-
prano part.

Choirs and Choral Music

Yet back of all this exercise of indi-
vidual skill there must be a spirit of
self-sacrifice which can only exist in
effective potency if prompted by univer-
sal sympathy and love for the art. A self-
ish chorister is not a chorister, though
possessed of the voice of a Melba or
Mario. Balance between the parts, not
only in the fundamental constitution of
the choir but also in all stages of a per-
formance, is also a matter of the highest
consideration. In urban communities,
especially, it is difficult to secure per-
fect tonal symmetry the rule is a pov-
erty in tenor voices but those who go
to hear choral concerts are entitled to
hear a well-balanced choir, and the pres-
ence of an army of sopranos will not
condone a squad of tenors. Again, I
say, better a well-balanced small choir
than an ill-balanced large one.

I have not enumerated all the ele-
ments which enter into a meritorious
performance, nor shall I discuss them
all ; only in passing do I wish to direct
attention to one which shines by Its
absence in the choral performances not
only of America but also of Great

271

CHAP.
VIII.

Selfishness
fatal to sue-

Tonal bal-
ance.

Deotam*-

272

CHAP.
VIII.

Expres-
sion.

The cho-
ruses in
" The

Messiah:

How to Listen to Music

Britain and Germany. Proper pro-
nunciation of the texts is an obvious
requirement ; so ought also to be dec-
lamation. There is no reason why
characteristic expression, by which I
mean expression which goes to the
genius of the melodic phrase when it
springs from the verbal, should be
ignored, simply because it may be diffi-
cult of attainment from large bodies of
singers. There is so much monotony
in oratorio concerts because all oratorios
and all parts of any single oratorio are
sung alike. Only when the " Hallelu-
jah " is sung in " The Messiah " at the
gracious Christmastide is an exaltation
above the dull level of the routine
performances noticeable, and then it is
communicated to the singers by the act
of the listeners in rising to their feet.
Now, despite the structural sameness in
the choruses of " The Messiah," they
have a great variety of content, and if
the characteristic physiognomy of each
could but be disclosed, the grand old
work, which seems hackneyed to so
many, would acquire amazing freshness,
eloquence, and power. Then should we

Choirs and Choral Music

2 73

be privileged to note that there is ample
variety in the voice of the old master,
of whom a greater than he said that
when he wished, he could strike like a
thunderbolt. Then should we hear the
tones of amazed adoration in

, Largo.

bfr^T" - <* t t LT -

CHAP.
VIII.

Variety of
declama-
tion in
Handel's
oratorio.

i-\r ^ - fs *-. p j d*~~d--
J p - -r *

Be - hold the Lamb of God !

of cruel scorn in

/ Allegro.

P3J5" h / 1 ^ ( 1 f. ^j -^ p * w x=k *v ^ 1

He trust - ed in God that he would de-

t^ 1 *1 hj p 1 1 ^ F- p

U -! U L< k J -^ 1 :
liv - er Him, let him de - liv - er him

f q ^ \L P . m _ m ^

1 ^ ^ * "
if he de - light in him.

of boastfuiness and conscious strength
in

i . r L f. ' , 1 V P^ ~

Let us break their bonds a sun - der.

and learn to admire as we ought to
admire the declamatory strength and

274

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.
VIII.

Medieval
music.

Madrigals.

truthfulness so common in Handel's
choruses.

There is very little cultivation of
choral music of the early ecclesiastical
type, and that little is limited to the
Church and a few choirs specially organ-
ized for its performance, like those that
I have mentioned. This music is so
foreign to the conceptions of the ordi-
nary amateur, and exacts so much skill
in the singing of the intervals, lacking
the prop of modern tonality as it does,
that it is seldom that an amateur body
can be found equal to its performance.
Moreover, it is nearly all of a solemn
type. Its composers were churchmen,
and when it was written nearly all that
there was of artistic music was in the
service of the Church. The secular
music of the time consisted chiefly in
Madrigals, which differed from ecclesi-
astical music only in their texts, they be-
ing generally erotic in sentiment. The
choristers of to-day, no less than the
public, find it difficult to appreciate
them, because they are not melodic in
the sense that most music is nowadays.
In them the melody is* not the privileged

Choirs and Choral Music

possession of the soprano voice. All
the voices stand on an equal footing,
and the composition consists of a weav-
ing together, according to scientific
rules, of a number of voices counter-
point as it is called.

Our hymn -tunes are homophonic,
based upon a melody sung by one voice,
for which the other voices provide the
harmony. This style of music came
into the Church through the German
Reformation. Though Calvin was a
lover of music he restricted its practice
among his followers to unisonal psal-
mody, that is, to certain tunes adapted
to the versified psalms sung without ac-
companiment of harmony voices. On
the adoption of the Genevan psalter he
gave the strictest injunction that neither
its text nor its melodies were to be al-
tered.

" Those songs and melodies," said he, " which
are composed for the mere pleasure of the ear, and
all they call ornamental music, and songs for four
parts, do not behoove the majesty of the Church,
and cannot fail greatly to displease God."

Under the influence of the German
reformers music was in a very different

2 75

CHAP.
VIII.

nic hymns.

Calvin's

restrictive

influence.

2 7 6

CHAP.
VIII.

Luther and
the German
Church.

A German
mass.

Secular
tunes used.

How to Listen to Music

case. Luther was not only an amateur
musician, he was also an ardent lover
of scientific music. Josquin des Pres,
a contemporary of Columbus, was his
greatest admiration ; nevertheless, he
was anxious from the beginning of his
work of Church establishment to have
the music of the German Church Ger-
man in spirit and style. In 1525 he
wrote :

" I should like to have a German mass, and I am
indeed at work on one ; but I am anxious that it
shall be truly German in manner. I have no objec-
tion to a translated Latin text and Latin notes ; but
they are neither proper nor just (aber es lautet nicht
artig noch rechtschajfeti) ; text and notes, accent,
melodies, and demeanor must come from our mother
tongue and voice, else will it all be but a mimicry,
like that of the apes."

In the Church music of the time, com-
posed, as I have described, by a scientific
interweaving of voices, the composers
had got into the habit of utilizing secu-
lar melodies as the foundation on which
to build their contrapuntal structures.
I have no doubt that it was the spirit
which speaks out of Luther's words
which brought it to pass that in Ger-

Choirs and Choral Music

many contrapuntal music with popular
melodies as foundations developed into
the chorale, in which the melody and not
the counterpoint was the essential thing.
With the Lutheran Church came con-
gregational singing ; with congrega-
tional singing the need of a new style
of composition, which should not only
make the participation of the people
in the singing possible, but should also
stimulate them to sing by freeing the
familiar melodies (the melodies of folk-
songs) from the elaborate and ingenious,
but soulless, counterpoint which fettered
them.

The Flemish masters, who were the
musical law-givers, had been using sec-
ular tunes for over a century, but only
as stalking-horses for counterpoint ; and
when the Germans began to use their
tunes, they, too, buried them beyond rec-
ognition in the contrapuntal mass. The
people were invited to sing paraphrases
of the psalms to familiar tunes, it is true,
but the choir's polyphony went far to
stifle the spirit of the melody. Soon
the free spirit which I have repeatedly
referred to as Romanticism, and which

2 77

CHAP.
VIII.

Congrega-
tionalsing-
ing.

Counter"
point.

2 7 8

CHAP.
VIII.

The first
congrega-
tional
hymns.

The Church

and con-
servatism.

How to Listen to Music

was powerfully encouraged by the Ref-
ormation, prompted a style of composi-
tion in which the admired melody was
lifted into relief. This could not be
done until the new style of writing in-
vented by the creators of the opera (see
Chapter VII.) came in, but as early as
1568 Dr. Lucas Ostrander published
fifty hymns and psalms with music so
arranged " that the congregation may
join in singing them." This, then, is in
outline the story of the beginning of
modern hymnology, and it is recalled to
the patrons of choral concerts whenever
in Bach's " Passion Music " or in Men-
delssohn's "St. Paul" the choir sings
one of the marvellous old hymns of the
German Church.

Choral music being bound up with
the Church, it has naturally participated
in the conservatism characteristic of the
Church. The severe old style has sur-
vived in the choral compositions of to-
day, while instrumental music has grown
to be almost a new thing within the cen-
tury which is just closing. It is the se-
vere style established by Bach, however,
not that of Palestrina. In the Church

Choirs and Choral Music

compositions prior to Palestrina the emo-
tional power of harmony was but little
understood. The harmonies, indeed,
were the accidents of the interweaving
of melodies. Palestrina was among the
first to feel the uplifting effect which
might result from a simple sequence of
pure consonant harmonies, and the three
chords which open his famous " Stabat
Mater"

Sta - bat ma - ter

are a sign of his style as distinct in its
way as the devices by means of which
Wagner stamps his individuality on his
phrases. His melodies, too, compared
with the artificial motivi of his predeces-
sors, are distinguished by grace, beauty,
and expressiveness, while his command
of aetherial effects, due to the manner in
which the voices are combined, is abso-
lutely without parallel from his day to
this. Of the mystery of pure beauty he
enjoyed a wonderful revelation, and has

279

CHAP.
VIII.

Harmony
and emo-
tion.

Palestrina's
" Stabat
Mater"

Character-
istics of
his music.

280

CHAP.
VIII.

Palfstrina's
music not
dramatis.

A church-

Efect of
the Refor-
mation.

How to Listen to Music

handed it down to us in such works as
the " Stabat Mater," " Missa Papae Mar-
celli," and the " Improperia."

This music must not be listened to
with the notion in mind of dramatic ex-
pression such as we almost instinctively
feel to-day. Palestrina does not seek to
proclaim the varying sentiment which
underlies his texts. That leads to indi-
vidual interpretation and is foreign to
the habits of churchmen in the old con-
ception, when the individual was com-
pletely resolved in the organization.
He aimed to exalt the mystery of the
service, not to bring it down to popular
comprehension and make it a personal
utterance. For such a design in music
we must wait until after the Reforma-
tion, when the ancient mysticism began
to fall back before the demands of rea-
son, when the idea of the sole and suffi-
cient mediation of the Church lost some
of its power in the face of the growing
conviction of intimate personal relation-
ship between man and his creator.
Now idealism had to yield some of its
dominion to realism, and a more rugged
art grew up in place of that which had

Choirs and Choral Music

been so wonderfully sublimated by mys-
ticism.

It is in Bach, who came a century
after Palestrina, that we find the most
eloquent musical proclamation of the
new regime, and it is in no sense dis-
respectful to the great German master
if we feel that the change in ideals was
accompanied with a loss in sensuous
charm, or pure aesthetic beauty. Effect
has had to yield to idea. It is in the
flow of the voices, the color effects which
result from combination and registers,
the clarity of the harmonies, the repose-
fulness coming from conscious ease of
utterance, the loveliness of each individ-
ual part, and the spiritual exaltation of
the whole that the aesthetic mystery of
Palestrina's music lies.

Like Palestrina, Bach is the culmina-
tion of the musical practice of his time,
but, unlike Palestrina, he is also the
starting-point of a new development.
With Bach the old contrapuntal art, now
not vocal merely but instrumental also
and mixed, reaches its climax, and the
tendency sets in which leads to the
highly complex and dramatic art of to-

28 1

CHAP.
VIII.

The source
of beauty
in Palcs-
trinafs
music.

Bach.

282

CHAP.
VIII.

Bach a

German

Protestant.

Church
and indi-
vidual.

How to Listen to Music

day. Palestrina's art is Roman ; the
spirit of restfulness, of celestial calm,
of supernatural revelation and supernal
beauty broods over it. Bach's is Gothic
rugged, massive, upward striving, hu-
man. In Palestrina's music the voice
that speaks is the voice of angels ; in
Bach's it is the voice of men.

Bach is the publisher of the truest,
tenderest, deepest, and most individual
religious feeling. His music is pecul-
iarly a hymning of the religious sen-
timent of Protestant Germany, where
salvation is to be wrought out with
fear and trembling by each individual
through faith and works rather than the
agency of even a divinely constituted
Church. It reflects, with rare fidelity
and clearness, the essential qualities of
the German people their warm sympa-
thy, profound compassion, fervent love,
and sturdy faith. As the Church fell
into the background and the individual
came to the fore, religious music took
on the dramatic character which we
find in the " Passion Music " of Bach.
Here the sufferings and death of the
Saviour, none the less an ineffable mys-

Choirs and Choral Music

tery, are depicted as the most poignant
experience of each individual believer,
and with an ingenuousness that must
forever provoke the wonder of those
who are unable to enter into the Ger-
man nature. The worshippers do not
hesitate to say : " My Jesus, good-
night ! " as they gather in fancy around
His tomb and invoke sweet rest for His
weary limbs. The difference between
such a proclamation and the calm voice
of the Church should be borne in mind
when comparing the music of Palestrina
with that of Bach ; also the vast strides
made by music during the intervening
century.

Of Bach's music we have in the rep-
ertories of our best choral societies a
number of motets, church cantatas, a set-
ting of the " Magnificat," and the great
mass in B minor. The term Motet lacks
somewhat of definiteness of the usage of
composers. Originally it seems likely
that it was a secular composition which
the Netherland composers enlisted in
the service of the Church by adapting
it to Biblical and other religious texts.
Then it was always unaccompanied. In

28 3

CHAP.
VIII.

Ingenuous-
ness of
feeling.

The motet.

284

CHAP.
VIII.

Church
cantatas.

The "Pas-
sions."

How to Listen to Music

the later Protestant motets the chorale
came to play a great part ; the various
stanzas of a hymn were given differ-
ent settings, the foundation of each be-
ing the hymn tune. These were inter-
spersed with independent pieces, based
on Biblical words.

The Church Cantatas (Kirchencanta-
teri) are larger services with orchestral
accompaniment, which were written to
conform to the various religious festi-
vals and Sundays of the year ; each has
for a fundamental subject the theme
which is proper to the day. Again, a
chorale provides the musical founda-
tion. Words and melody are retained,
but between the stanzas occur recita-
tives and metrical airs, or ariosos, for
solo voices in the nature of commenta-
ries or reflections on the sentiment of
the hymn or the gospel lesson for the
day.

The " Passions " are still more ex-
tended, and were written for use in
the Reformed Church in Holy Week.
As an art-form they arc unique, com-
bining a number of elements and hav-
ing all the apparatus of an oratorio

Choirs and Choral Music

plus the congregation, which took part
in the performance by singing the
hymns dispersed through the work.
The service (for as a service, rather
than as an oratorio, it must be treated)
roots in the Miracle plays and Myste-
ries of the Middle Ages, but its origin
is even more remote, going back to
the custom followed by the primitive
Christians of making the reading of the
story of the Passion a special service
for Holy Week. In the Eastern Church
it was introduced in a simple dramatic
form as early as the fourth century A.D.,
the treatment being somewhat like the
ancient tragedies, the text being intoned
or chanted. In the Western Church,
until the sixteenth century, the Passion
was read in a way which gave the ser-
vice one element which is found in
Bach's works in an amplified form.
Three deacons were employed, one to
read (or rather chant to Gregorian
melodies) the words of Christ, anoth-
er to deliver the narrative in the words
of the Evangelist, and a third to
give the utterances and exclamations of
the Apostles and people. This was

28 5

CHAP.
VIII.

Origin of
the " Pas-

Early Holy
Week ser-
vices.

286

CHAP.
VIII.

The ser-
vice ampli-
fied.

BaeKs
settings.

How to Listen to Music

the Cantus Passionis Domini nostri Jesu
Christe of the Church, and had so strong
a hold upon the tastes of the people
that it was preserved by Luther in the
Reformed Church.

Under this influence it was speedily
amplified.. The successive steps of the
progress are not clear, but the choir
seems to have first succeeded to the
part formerly sung by the third deacon,
and in some churches the whole Passion
was sung antiphonally by two choirs.
In the seventeenth century the intro-
duction of recitatives and arias, distrib-
uted among singers who represented
the personages of sacred history, in-
creased the dramatic element of the
service which reached its climax in the
" St. Matthew " setting by Bach. The
chorales are supposed to have been in-
troduced about 1704. Bach's " Passions"
are the last that figure in musical his-
tory. That "according to St. John"
is performed occasionally in Germany,
but it yields the palm of excellence to
that " according to St. Matthew," which
had its first performance on Good Fri-
day, 1729, in Leipsic. It is in two parts,

Choirs and Choral Music

287

which were formerly separated by the
sermon, and employs two choirs, each
with its own orchestra, solo singers in
all the classes of voices, and a harpsi-
chord to accompany all the recitatives,
except those of Jesus, which are distin-
guished by being accompanied by the
orchestral strings.

In the nature of things passions, ora-
torios, and their secular cousins, canta-
tas, imply scenes and actions, and there-
fore have a remote kinship with the
lyric drama. The literary analogy which
they suggest is the epic poem as contra-
distinguished from the drama. While
the drama presents incident, the oratorio
relates, expounds, and celebrates, pre-
senting it to the fancy through the ear
instead of representing it to the eye. A
great deal of looseness has crept into
this department of music as into every
other, and the various forms have been
approaching each other until in some
cases it is become difficult to say which
term, opera or oratorio, ought to be ap-
plied. Rubinstein's " sacred operas "
are oratorios profusely interspersed with
stage directions, many of which are im-

CHAP.
VIII.

Oratorio**

Sacred
operas.

288

CHAP.
VIII.

Influence
of the
Church
plays.

Origin
of the
oratorio.

How to Listen to Music

possible of scenic realization. Their
whole purpose is to work upon the
imagination of the listeners and thus
open gate-ways for the music. Ever
since its composition, Saint - Saens's
" Samson and Delilah " has held a place
in both theatre and concert- room. Liszt's
"St. Elizabeth" has been found more
effective when provided with pictorial
accessories than without. The greater
part of " Elijah " might be presented in
dramatic form.

Confusing and anomalous as these
things are, they find their explanation in
the circumstance that the oratorio never
quite freed itself from the influence of
the people's Church plays in which it
had its beginning. As a distinct art-
form it began in a mixture of artistic
entertainment and religious worship
provided in the early part of the six-
teenth century by Filippo Neri (now a
saint) for those who came for pious in-
struction to his oratory (whence the
name). The purpose of these entertain-
ments being religious, the subjects were
Biblical, and though the musical prog-
ress from the beginning was along the

Choirs and Choral Music

line of the lyric drama, contempora-
neous in origin with it, the music natu-
rally developed into broader forms on
the choral side, because music had to
make up for the lack of pantomime, cos-
tumes, and scenery. Hence we have
not only the preponderance of choruses
in the oratorio over recitative, arias,
duets, trios, and so forth, but also the
adherence in the choral part to the old
manner of writing" which made the ex-
pansion of the choruses possible. Where
the choruses left the field of pure reflec-
tion and became narrative, as in " Israel
in Egypt," or assumed a dramatic char-
acter, as in the " Elijah," the composer
found in them vehicles for descriptive
and characteristic music, and so local
color came into use. Characterization
of the solo parts followed as a matter of
course, an early illustration being found
in the manner in which Bach lifted the
words of Christ into prominence by sur-
rounding them with the radiant halo
which streams from the violin accom-
paniment. In consequence the singer
to whom was assigned the task of sing-
ing the part of Jesus presented himself

289

CHAP.
VIII.

The chora' '

element

extended.

Narrative
and de-
scriptive
choruses.

Dramati-
zation.

290

CHAP.
VIII.

The chorus
in opera
and ora-
torio.

The Mass.

How to Listen to Music

to the fancy of the listeners as a repre-
sentative of the historical personage
as the Christ of the drama.

The growth of the instrumental art
here came admirably into play, and so it
came to pass that opera and oratorio
now have their musical elements of ex-
pression in common, and differ only in
their application of them opera fore-
going the choral element to a great ex-
tent as being a hindrance to action, and
oratorio elevating it to make good the
absence of scenery and action. While
oratorios are biblical and legendary,
cantatas deal with secular subjects and,
in the form of dramatic ballads, find a
delightful field in the world of romance
and supernaturalism.

Transferred from the Church to the
concert-room, and considered as an art-
form instead of the eucharistic office,
the Mass has always made a strong ap-
peal to composers, and half a dozen
masterpieces of missal composition
hold places in the concert lists of the
singing societies. Notable among these
are the Requiems of Mozart, Berlioz,
and Verdi, and the Solemn Mass in D by

Choirs and Choral Music

Beethoven. These works represent at
one and the same time the climax of ac-
complishment in the musical treatment
and the secularization of the missal text.
They are the natural outcome of the ex-
pansion of the office by the introduction
of the orchestra into the Church, the
departure from the a capella style of
writing, which could not be consorted
with the orchestra, and the growth of a
desire to enhance the pomp of great
occasions in the Church by the produc-
tion of masses specially composed for
them. Under such circumstances the
devotional purpose of the mass was
lost in the artistic, and composers gave
free reign to their powers, for which
they found an ample stimulus in the
missal text

The first effect, and the one which
largely justifies the adherents of the old
ecclesiastical style in their crusade
against the Catholic Church music of
to-day, was to make the masses senti-
mental and operatic. So little regard
was had for the sentiment of the words,
so little respect for the solemnity of the
sacrament, that more than a century ago

291

CHAP.
VIII.

Secular-
ization of
the Mass.

Sentimen-
tal masses.

292

CHAP.
VIII.

Mozart
and the
Mass.

The masses
for the
dead.

How to Listen to Music

Mozart (whose masses are far from
being models of religious expression)
could say to Cantor Doles of a Gloria
which the latter showed him, " S'ist ja
alles nix" and immediately sing the
music to "Hoi's der Geier, das geht
flink ! " which words, he said, went
better. The liberty begotten by this
license, though it tended to ruin the
mass, considered strictly as a liturgical
service, developed it musically. The
masses for the dead were among the
earliest to feel the spirit of the time, for
in the sequence, Dies irce, they con-
tained the dramatic element which the
solemn mass lacked. The Kyrie, Credo,
Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei are
purely lyrical, and though the evolu-
tionary movement ended in Beethoven
conceiving certain portions (notably the
Agnus Dei} in a dramatic sense, it was
but natural that so far as tradition fixed
the disposition and formal style of the
various parts, it should not be dis-
turbed. At an early date the compos-
ers began to put forth their powers of
description in the Dies ires, however, and
there is extant in a French mass an

Choirs and Choral Music

amusing example of the length to
which tone-painting in this music was
carried by them. Gossec wrote a Re-
quiem on the death of Mirabeau which
became famous. The words, Quantus
tremor est futurus, he set so that on
each syllable there were repetitions,
staccato, of a single tone, thus :

This absurd stuttering Gossec de-
signed to picture the terror inspired by
the coming of the Judge at the last
trumpet.

The development of instrumentation
placed a factor in the hands of these
writers which they were not slow to
utilize, especially in writing music for

2 93

CHAP.
VIII.

Gossec s
Requiem,

The orches-
tra in the

Mass.

294

CHAP.
VIII.

Beethoven

and

Berlioz.

Berlioz's
Requiem.

How to Listen to Music

the Dies ir<z> and how effectively Mo-
zart used the orchestra in his Requiem
it is not necessary to state. It is a safe
assumption that Beethoven's Mass in D
was largely instrumental in inspiring
Berlioz to set the Requiem as he did.
With Beethoven the dramatic idea is
the controlling one, and so it is with
Berlioz. Beethoven, while showing a
reverence for the formulas of the Church,
and respecting the tradition which gave
the Kyrie a triple division and made
fugue movements out of the phrases
" Cum sancto spiritu in gloria Dei patris
Amen," " Et vitam venturi" and " Osanna
in excelsis" nevertheless gave his com-
position a scope which placed it beyond
the apparatus of the Church, and filled
it with a spirit that spurns the limita-
tions of any creed of less breadth and
universality than the grand Theism
which affectionate communion with nat-
ure had taught him.

Berlioz, less religious, less reverential,
but equally fired by the solemnity and
majesty of the matter given into his
hands, wrote a work in which he placed
his highest conception of the awfulness

Choirs and Choral Music

of the Last Judgment and the emotions
which are awakened by its contempla-
tion. In respect of the instrumentation
he showed a far greater audacity than
Beethoven displayed even in the much-
mooted trumpets and drums of the Ag-
nus Dei, where he introduces the sounds
of war to heighten the intensity of the
prayer for peace, " Dona nobis pacem"
This is talked about in the books as a
bold innovation. It seems to have es-
caped notice that the idea had occurred
to Haydn twenty-four years before and
been realized by him. In 1796 Haydn
wrote a mass, " In Tempore Belli," the
French army being at the time in Stey-
ermark. He set the words, " Agnus Dei
qui tollis peccata mundi" to an accompan-
iment of drums, " as if the enemy were
already heard coming in the distance."
He went farther than this in a Mass in
D minor, when he accompanied the Be-
nedictus with fanfares of trumpets. But
all such timid ventures in the use of in-
struments in the mass sink into utter
insignificance when compared with Ber-
lioz's apparatus in the Tuba mirum of
his Requiem, which supplements the or-

295

CHAP.
VIII.

Dramatic
ejects in
Haydn's
masses.

Berlioz's
orchestra.

296

How to Listen to Music

CHAP.
VIII.

dinary symphonic orchestra, some of its
instruments already doubled, with four
brass bands of eight or ten instruments
each, sixteen extra drums, and a tam-
tam.

IX

Musician, Critic, and Public

1HAVE been told that there are
many people who read the news-
papers on the day after they have at-
tended a concert or operatic represen-
tation for the purpose of finding out
whether or not the performance gave
them proper or sufficient enjoyment.
It would not be becoming in me to
inquire too curiously into the truth of
such a statement, and in view of a de-
nunciation spoken in the introductory
chapter of this book, I am not sure that
it is not a piece of arrogance, or impu-
dence, on my part to undertake in
any way to justify any critical writing
on the subject of music. Certain it is
that some men who write about music
for the newspapers believe, or affect to
believe, that criticism is worthless, and

297

The news-
papers and
the public.

CHAP.
IX.

delation-
ship be-
tween
musician,
critic, and
public.

How to Listen to Music

I shall not escape the charge of incon-
sistency, if, after I have condemned the
blunders of literary men, who are lay-
men in music, and separated the major-
ity of professional writers on the art
into pedants and rhapsodists, I never-
theless venture to discuss the nature
and value of musical criticism. Yet,
surely, there must be a right and wrong
in this as in every other thing, and just
as surely the present structure of so-
ciety, which rests on the newspaper,
invites attention to the existing rela-
tionship between musician, critic, and
public as an important element in the
question How to Listen to Music.

As a condition precedent to the dis-
cussion of this new element in the case,
I lay down the proposition that the
relationship between the three factors
enumerated is so intimate and so strict
that the world over they rise and fall
together ; which means that where the
people dwell who have reached the
highest plane of excellence, there also
are to be found the highest types of
the musician and critic ; and that in
the degree in which the three factors,

Musician, Critic, and Public

which united make up the sum of mu-
sical activity, labor harmoniously, con-
scientiously, and unselfishly, each striv-
ing to fulfil its mission, they advance
music and further themselves, each
bearing off an equal share of the good
derived from the common effort. I
have set the factors down in the order
which they ordinarily occupy in popu-
lar discussion and which symbolizes
their proper attitude toward each other
and the highest potency of their collab-
oration. In this collaboration, as in so
many others, it is conflict that brings
life. Only by a surrender of their
functions, one to the other, could the
three apparently dissonant yet essen-
tially harmonious factors be brought
into a state of complacency ; but such
complacency would mean stagnation.
If the published judgment on composi-
tions and performances could always be
that of the exploiting musicians, that
class, at least, would read the news-
papers with fewer heart-burnings; if the
critics had a common mind and it were
followed in concert - room and opera-
house, they, as well as the musicians,

299

1

CHAP.
IX.

The need
and value
of conflict.

300

CHAP
IX.

The critic
an fsh-
maelite.

How to Listen to Music

would have need of fewer words of dis-
placency and more of approbation ; if,
finally, it were to be brought to pass that
for the public nothing but amiable di-
version should flow simultaneously from
platform, stage, and press, then for the
public would the millennium be come.
A religious philosopher can transmute
Adam's fall into a blessing, and we can
recognize the wisdom of that dispensa-
tion which put enmity between the seed
of Jubal, who was the " father of all
such as handle the harp and pipe," and
the seed of Saul, who, I take it, is the
first critic of record (and a vigorous one,
too, for he accentuated his unfavorable
opinion of a harper's harping with a
javelin thrust).

We are bound to recognize that be-
tween the three factors there is, ever
was, and ever shall be in scecula sceculorum
an irrepressible conflict, and that in the
nature of things the middle factor is the
Ishmaelite whose hand is raised against
everybody and against whom every-
body's hand is raised. The compla-
cency of the musician and the indiffer-
ence, not to say ignorance, of the public

Musician, Critic, and Public

ordinarily combine to make them allies,
and the critic is, therefore, placed be-
tween two millstones, where he is vigor-
ously rasped on both sides, and whence,
being angular and hard of outer shell,
he frequently requites the treatment
received with complete and energetic
reciprocity. Is he therefore to be pit-
ied ? Not a bit ; for in this position he
is performing one of the most significant
and useful of his functions, and disclos-
ing one of his most precious virtues.
While musician and public must per-
force remain in the positions in which
they have been placed with relation to
each other it must be apparent at half
a glance that it would be the simplest
matter in the world for the critic to ex-
tricate himself from his predicament.
He would only need to take his cue
from the public, measuring his commen-
dation by the intensity of their applause,
his dispraise by their signs of displeas-
ure, and all would be well with him.
We all know this to be true, that people
like to read that which flatters them by
echoing their own thoughts. The more
delightfully it is put by the writer the

301

CHAP.
IX.

The critic
not to be
pitied.

How he
might
extricate
himself.

3 02

CHAP.
IX.

The public
like to be
flattered.

The critic
generally
outspoken.

How to Listen to Music

more the reader is pleased, for has he
not had the same idea? Are they not
his ? Is not their appearance in a public
print proof of the shrewdness and sound-
ness of his judgment? Ruskin knows
this foible in human nature and con-
demns it. You may read in " Sesame
and Lilies : "

" Very ready we are to say of a book, ' How good
this is that's exactly what I think ! ' But the
right feeling is, ' How strange that is ! I never
thought of that before, and yet I see it is true ; or
if I do not now, I hope I shall, some day.' But
whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure
that you go at the author to get at his meaning, not
to find yours. Judge it afterward if you think
yourself qualified to do so, but ascertain it first."

As a rule, however, the critic is not
guilty of the wrong of speaking out the
thought of others, but publishes what
there is of his own mind, and this I laud
in him as a virtue, which is praisewor-
thy in the degree that it springs from
loftiness of aim, depth of knowledge, and
sincerity and unselfishness of purpose.

Let us look a little into the views
which our factors do and those which
they ought to entertain of each other.

Musician, Critic, and Public

The utterances of musicians have long
ago made it plain that as between the
critic and the public the greater meas-
ure of their respect and deference is
given to the public. The critic is bound
to recognize this as entirely natural ;
his right of protest does not accrue
until he can show that the deference is
ignoble and injurious to good art. It is
to the public that the musician appeals
for the substantial signs of what is called
success. This appeal to the jury instead
of the judge is as characteristic of the
conscientious composer who is sincere-
ly convinced that he was sent into the
world to widen the boundaries of art,
as it is of the mere time-server who
aims only at tickling the popular ear.
The reason is obvious to a little close
thinking : Ignorance is at once a safe-
guard against and a promoter of con-
servatism. This sounds like a paradox,
but the rapid growth of Wagner's music
in the admiration of the people of the
United States might correctly be cited
as a proof that the statement is true.
Music like the concert fragments from
Wagner's lyric dramas is accepted

33

CHAP.
IX.

Musician
andfutlic.

The office
tfigno-

34

CHAP.
IX.

Popularity
of Wag-
ner's music
not a sign
of intelli-
gent appre-
ciation.

How to Listen to Music

with promptitude and delight, because
its elements are those which appeal
most directly and forcibly to our sense-
perception and those primitive tastes
which are the most readily gratified by
strong outlines and vivid colors. Their
vigorous rhythms, wealth of color, and
sonority would make these fragments
far more impressive to a savage than the
suave beauty of a symphony by Haydn ;
yet do we not all know that while
whole-hearted, intelligent enjoyment of
a Haydn symphony is conditioned up-
on a considerable degree of culture, an
equally whole-hearted, intelligent ap-
preciation of Wagner's music presup-
poses a much wider range of sympathy,
a much more extended view of the ca-
pabilities of musical expression, a much
keener discernment, and a much pro-
founder susceptibility to the effects of
harmonic progressions? And is the
conclusion not inevitable, therefore,
that on the whole the ready acceptance
of Wagner's music by a people is evi-
dence that they are not sufficiently cult-
ured to feel the force of that conserva-
tism which made the triumph of Wag-

;

Musician, Critic, and Public

ner consequent on many years of agita-
tion in musical Germany ?

In one case the appeal is elemental ;
in the other spiritual. He who wishes
to be in advance of his time does wisely
in going to the people instead of the
critics, just as the old fogy does whose
music belongs to the time when sen-
suous charm summed up its essence.
There is a good deal of ambiguity about
the stereotyped phrase " ahead of one's
time." Rightly apprehended, great
geniuses do live for the future rather
than the present, but where the public
have the vastness of appetite and scant-
ness of taste peculiar to the ostrich,
there it is impossible for a composer to
be ahead of his time. It is only where
the public are advanced to the stage of
intelligent discrimination that a Ninth
Symphony and a Nibelung Tetralogy
are accepted slowly.

Why the charlatan should profess to
despise the critic and to pay homage
only to the public scarcely needs an
explanation. It is the critic who stands
between him and the public he would
victimize. Much of the disaffection be-

35

CHAP.
IX.

' ' Ahead of
one s time"

The
charlatan.

306

CHAP.
IX.

Influenc-
ing the
critics.

How to Listen to Music

tween the concert-giver and the concert-
reviewer arises from the unwillingness
of the latter to enlist in a conspiracy to
deceive and defraud the public. There
is no need of mincing phrases here.
The critics of the newspaper press are
besieged daily with requests for notices
of a complimentary character touching
persons who have no honest standing
in art. They are fawned on, truckled
to, cajoled, subjected to the most seduc-
tive influences, sometimes bribed with
woman's smiles or manager's money
and why ? To win their influence in
favor of good art, think you ? No ; to
feed vanity and greed. When a critic
is found of sufficient self-respect and
character to resist all appeals and to
be proof against all temptations, who
is quicker than the musician to cite
against his opinion the applause of the
public over whose gullibility and igno-
rance, perchance, he made merry with
the critic while trying to purchase his
independence and honor ?

It is only when musicians divide the
question touching the rights and merits
of public and critic that they seem able

Musician, Critic, and Public

to put a correct estimate upon the value
of popular approval. At the last the
best of them are willing, with Ferdi-
nand Hiller, to look upon the public as
an elemental power like the weather,
which must be taken as it chances to
come. With modern society resting
upon the newspaper they might be
willing to view the critic in the same
light ; but this they will not do so long
as they adhere to the notion that criti-
cism belongs of right to the professional
musician, and will eventually be handed
over to him. As for the critic, he may
recognize the naturalness and reason-
ableness of a final resort for judgment
to the factor for whose sake art is
(i.e., the public), but he is not bound to
admit its unfailing righteousness. Up-
on him, so he be worthy of his office,
weighs the duty of first determining
whether the appeal is taken from a
lofty purpose or a low one, and whether
or not the favored tribunal is worthy to
try the case. Those who show a will-
ingness to accept low ideals cannot ex-
act high ones. The influence of their
applause is a thousand-fold more injuri-

37

CHAP.
IX.

an ele-
mental
force.

Critic and
public.

3 o8

CHAP.
IX.

Schumann

andpopular

approval

Deprecia-
tion of the
critic.

How to Listen to Music

ous to art than the strictures of the
most acrid critic. A musician of Schu-
mann's mental and moral stature could
recognize this and make it the basis of
some of his most forcible aphorisms :

" ' It pleased,' or * It did not please,' say the peo-
ple ; as if there were no higher purpose than to
please the people."

" The most difficult thing in the world to endure
is the applause of fools ! "

The belief professed by many musi-
cians professed, not really held that
the public can do no wrong, unquestion-
ably grows out of a depreciation of the
critic rather than an appreciation of the
critical acumen of the masses. This de-
preciation is due more to the concrete
work of the critic (which is only too
often deserving of condemnation) than
to a denial of the good offices of crit-
icism. This much should be said for
the musician, who is more liable to be
misunderstood and more powerless
against misrepresentation than any
other artist. A line should be drawn
between mere expression of opinion and
criticism. It has been recognized for

Musician, Critic, and Public

ages you may find it plainly set forth
in Quintilian and Cicero that in the
long run the public are neither bad
judges nor good critics. The distinc-
tion suggests a thought about the differ-
ence in value between a popular and a
critical judgment. The former is, in
the nature of things, ill considered and
fleeting. It is the product of a momen-
tary gratification or disappointment. In
a much greater degree than a judgment
based on principle and precedent, such
as a critic's ought to be, it is a judgment
swayed by that variable thing called
fashion " Qualpibm al vento"

But if this be so we ought plainly to
understand the duties and obligations
of the critic ; perhaps it is because there
is much misapprehension on this point
that critics' writings have fallen under
their own condemnation. I conceive
that the first, if not the sole, office of the
critic should be to guide public judg-
ment. It is not for him to instruct the
musician in his art. If this were always
borne in mind by writers for the press
it might help to soften the asperity felt
by the musician toward the critic ; and

39

CHAP.
IX.

Value of

public

opinion.

Duties of
the critic.

310

CHAP.
IX.

The musi-
cians duty
toward the
critic.

The critic
should
steady fub-
licjudg-
ment.

How to Listen to Music

possibly the musician might then be
persuaded to perform his first office tow-
ard the critic, which is to hold up his
hands while he labors to steady and
dignify public opinion. No true artist
would give up years of honorable esteem
to be the object for a moment of fever-
ish idolatry. The public are fickle.
" The garlands they twine," says Schu-
mann, " they always pull to pieces again
to offer them in another form to the
next comer who chances to know how
to amuse them better." Are such gar-
lands worth the sacrifice of artistic
honor ? If it were possible for the critic
to withhold them and offer instead a
modest sprig of enduring bay, would
not the musician be his debtor?

Another thought. Conceding that
the people are the elemental power that
Hiller says they are, who shall save
them from the changeableness and in-
stability which they show with relation
to music and her votaries ? Who shall
bid the restless waves be still ? We, in
America, are a new people, a vast hotch-
potch of varied and contradictory ele-
ments. We are engaged in conquering

Musician, Critic, and Public

a continent ; employed in a mad scram-
ble for material things ; we give feverish
hours to win the comfort for our bodies
that we take only seconds to enjoy ; the
moments which we steal from our labors
we give grudgingly to relaxation, and
that this relaxation may come quickly
we ask that the agents which produce
it shall appeal violently to the faculties
which are most easily reached. Under
these circumstances whence are to come
the intellectual poise, the refined taste,
the quick and sure power of analysis
which must precede a correct estimate
of the value of a composition or its per-
formance ?

" A taste or judgment," said Shaftesbury, "does
not come ready formed with us into this world.
Whatever principles or materials of this kind we
may possibly bring with us, a legitimate and just
taste can neither be begotten, made, conceived, or
produced without the antecedent labor and pains of
criticism."

Grant that this antecedent criticism
is the province of the critic and that he
approaches even remotely a fulfilment
of his mission in this regard, and who
shall venture to question the value and

CHAP.
IX.

Taste and
judgment
must be
achieved.

3 12

CHAP.
IX.

Compara-
tive quali-
fications of
critic and
public.

The critic s
responsi-
bilities.

How to Listen to Music

the need of criticism to the promotion
of public opinion? In this work the
critic has a great advantage over the
musician. The musician appeals to the
public with volatile and elusive sounds.
When he gets past the tympanum of the
ear he works upon the emotions and the
fancy. The public have no time to let
him do more ; for the rest they are will-
ing to refer him to the critic, whose
business it is continually to hear music
for the purpose of forming opinions
about it and expressing them. Th*e
critic has both the time and the obliga-
tion to analyze the reasons why and the
extent to which the faculties are stirred
into activity. Is it not plain, therefore,
that the critic ought to be better able to
distinguish the good from the bad, the
true from the false, the sound from the
meretricious, than the unindividualized
multitude, who are already satisfied
when they have felt the ticklings of
pleasure?

But when we place so great a mission
as the education of public taste before
the critic, we saddle him with a vast re-
sponsibility which is quite evenly divided

Musician, Critic, and Public

between the musician and the public.
The responsibility toward the musician
is not that which we are accustomed to
hear harped on by the aggrieved ones
on the day after a concert. It is toward
the musician only as a representative of
art, and his just claims can have nothing
of selfishness in them. The abnormal
sensitiveness of the musician to criti-
cism, though it may excite his commis-
eration and even honest pity, should
never count with the critic in the per-
formance of a plain duty. This sensi-
tiveness is the product of a low state in
music as well as criticism, and in the
face of improvement in the two fields it
will either disappear or fall under a kill-
ing condemnation. The power of the
press will here work for good. The
newspaper now fills the place in the
musician's economy which a century
ago was filled in Europe by the courts
and nobility. Its support, indirect as
well as direct, replaces the patronage
which erstwhile came from these power-
ful ones. The evils which flow from the
changed conditions are different in ex-
tent but n6t in kind from the old. Too

CHAP.
IX.

Toward the
musician.

Position
andpower
of the news-
paper.

34

CHAP.
IX.

The musi-
cian should
help 'to ele-
vate the
standard of
criticism.

How to Listen to Music

frequently for the good of art that sup-
port is purchased by the same crookings
of " the pregnant hinges of the knee "
that were once the price of royal or
noble condescension. If the tone of
the press at times becomes arrogant, it
is from the same causes that raised the
voices and curled the lips of the petty
dukes and princes, to flatter whose van-
ity great artists used to labor.

The musician knows as well as any-
one how impossible it is to escape the
press, and it is, therefore, his plain duty
to seek to raise the standard of its utter-
ances by conceding the rights of the
critic and encouraging honesty, fearless-
ness, impartiality, intelligence, and sym-
pathy wherever he finds them. To this
end he must cast away many antiquated
and foolish prejudices. He must learn
to confess with Wagner, the arch-enemy
of criticism, that " blame is much more
useful to the artist than praise," and
that "the musician who goes to de-
struction because he is faulted, deserves
destruction." He must stop the conten-
tion that only a musician is entitled to
criticise a musician, and without abat-

Musician, Critic, and Public

ing one jot of his requirements as to
knowledge, sympathy, liberality, broad-
mindedness, candor, and incorruptibility
on the part of the critic, he must quit
the foolish claim that to pronounce
upon the excellence of a ragout one
must be able to cook it; if he will not
go farther he must, at least, go with the
elder D' Israeli to the extent of saying
that " the talent of judgment may exist
separately from the power of execu-
tion." One need not be a composer, but
one must be able to feel with a com-
poser before he can discuss his produc-
tions as they ought to be discussed.
Not all the writers for the press are
able to do this ; many depend upon ef-
frontery and a copious use of technical
phrases to carry them through. The
musician, alas ! encourages this method
whenever he gets a chance; nine times
out of ten, when an opportunity to re-
view a composition fails to him, he ap-
proaches it on its technical side. Yet
music is of all the arts in the world the
last that a mere pedant should discuss.

But if not a mere pedant, then neither
a mere sentimentalist.

CHAP.
IX.

A critic
must not
necessarily
be a musi-
cian.

Pedantry
not wanted.

316

CHAP.
IX.

Intelligence
versus
emotional'
ism.

Personal
equation.

How to Listen to Music

" If I had to choose between the merits of two
classes of hearers, one of whom had an intelligent
appreciation of music without feeling emotion ; the
other an emotional feeling without an intelligent
analysis, I should unhesitatingly decide in favor of
the intelligent non-emotionalist. And for these rea-
sons : The verdict of the intelligent non-emotion-
alist would be valuable as far as it goes, but that of
the untrained emotionalist is not of the smallest
value; his blame and his praise are equally un-
founded and empty."

So writes Dr. Stainer, and it is his
emotionalist against whom I uttered a
warning in the introductory chapter of
this book, when I called him a rhapsodist
and described his motive to be prima-
rily a desire to present himself as a per-
son of unusually exquisite sensibilities.
Frequently the rhapsodic style is
adopted to conceal a want of knowl-
edge, and, I fancy, sometimes also be-
cause ill -equipped critics have per-
suaded themselves that criticism being
worthless, what the public need to read
is a fantastic account of how music af-
fects them. Now, it is true that what
is chiefly valuable in criticism is what a
man qualified to think and feel tells us
he did think and feel under the inspira-

Musician, Critic, and Public

tion of a performance ; but when car-
ried too far, or restricted too much, this
conception of a critic's province lifts
personal equation into dangerous promi-
nence in the critical activity, and depre-
ciates the elements of criticism, which
are not matters of opinion or taste at
all, but questions of fact, as exactly
demonstrable as a problem in mathe-
matics. In musical performance these
elements belong to the technics of the
art. Granted that the critic has a cor-
rect ear, a thing which he must have if
he aspire to be a critic at all, and the
possession of which is as easily proved
as that of a dollar-bill in his pocket,
the questions of justness of intonation
in a singer or instrumentalist, balance
of tone in an orchestra, correctness of
phrasing, and many other things, are
mere determinations of fact ; the facul-
ties which recognize their existence
or discover their absence might exist
in a person who is not " moved by con-
cord of sweet sounds " at all, and
whose taste is of the lowest type. It
was the acoustician Euler. 1 believe,
who said that he could construct a so-

3 1 ?

CHAP.
IX.

Exact
criticism.

CHAP
IX.

The Rhap-
sodists.

An English
exemplar.

How to Listen to Music

nata according to the laws of mathe-
matics figure one out, that is.

Because music is in its nature such a
mystery, because so little of its philos-
ophy, so little of its science is popularly
known, there has grown up the tribe of
rhapsodical writers whose influence is
most pernicious. I have a case in mind
at which I have already hinted in this
book that of a certain English gentle-
man who has gained considerable emi-
nence because of the loveliness of the
subject on which he writes and his
deftness in putting words together. On
many points he is qualified to speak,
and on these he generally speaks enter-
tainingly. He frequently blunders in
details, but it is only when he writes
in the manner exemplified in the fol-
lowing excerpt from his book called
" My Musical Memories," that he does
mischief. The reverend gentleman,
talking about violins, has reached one
that once belonged to Ernst. This, he
says, he sees occasionally, but he never
hears it more except

" In the night . . . under the stars, when
the moon is low and I see the dark ridges of the

Musician, Critic, and Public

clover hills, and rabbits and hares, black against the
paler sky, pausing to feed or crouching to listen to
the voices of the night. . . .

" By the sea, when the cold mists rise, and hol-
low murmurs, like the low wail of lost spirits, rush
along the beach. . . .

" In some still valley in the South, in midsum-
mer. The slate-colored moth on the rock flashes
suddenly into crimson and takes wing ; the bright
lizard darts timorously, and the singing of the grass-
hopper "

Well, the reader, if he has a liking
for such things, may himself go on for
quantity. This is intended, I fancy, for
poetical hyperbole, but as a matter of
fact it is something else, and worse.
Mr. Haweis does not hear Ernst's vio-
lin under any such improbable condi-
tions ; if he thinks he does he is a
proper subject for medical inquiry.
Neither does his effort at fine writing
help us to appreciate the tone of the in-
strument. He did not intend that it
should, but he probably did intend to
make the reader marvel at the exquisite
sensibility of his soul to music. This is
mischievous, for it tends to make the in-
judicious think that they are lacking in
musical appreciation, unless they, too,

3 1 9

CHAP.
IX.

Ernst's
violin.

Mischiev-
ous writ-
ing.

320

CHAP.
IX.

Musical
sensibility
and sanity.

How to Listen to Music

-.

can see visions and hear voices and
dream fantastic dreams when music is
sounding. When such writing is popu-
lar it is difficult to make men and women
belie\e that they may be just as suscep-
tible to the influence of music as the
child Mozart was to the sound of a
trumpet, yet listen to it without once
feeling the need of taking leave of their
senses or wandering away from sanity.
Moreover, when Mr. Haweis says that
he sees but does not hear Ernst's violin
more, he speaks most undeserved dis-
praise of one of the best violin players
alive, for Ernst's violin now belongs to
and is played by Lady Halle" she that
was Madame Norman-Neruda.

Is there, then, no place for rhapsodic
writing in musical criticism ? Yes, de-
cidedly. It may, indeed, at times be the
best, because the truest, writing. One
would convey but a sorry idea of a com-
position were he to confine himself to a
technical description of it the number
of its measures, its intervals, modula-
tions, speed, and rhythm. Such a de-
scription would only be comprehensible
to the trained musician, and to him

Musician, Critic, and Public

would picture the body merely, not the
soul. One might as well hope to tell of
the beauty of a statue by reciting its di-
mensions. But knowledge as well as
sympathy must speak out of the words,
so that they may realize Schumann's
lovely conception when he said that the
best criticism is that which leaves after
it an impression on the reader like that
which the music made on the hearer.
Read Dr. John Brown's account of one
of Halle's recitals, reprinted from " The
Scotsman," in the collection of essays
entitled " Spare Hours," if you would
see how aptly a sweetly sane mind and
a warm heart can rhapsodize without
the help of technical knowledge :

" Beethoven (Dr. Brown is speaking of the So-
nata in D, op. 10, No. 3) begins with a trouble,
a wandering and groping in the dark, a strange
emergence of order out of chaos, a wild, rich con-
fusion and misrule. Wilful and passionate, often
harsh, and, as it were, thick with gloom; then
comes, as if ' it stole upon the air,' the burden of
the theme, the still, sad music Largo mesto so
human, so sorrowful, and yet the sorrow overcome,
not by gladness but by something better, like the
sea, after a dark night of tempest, falling asleep in
the young light of morning, and 4 whispering how

3 21

CHAP,
IX.

Intelligent
rhapsody.

Dr. Brown

and

Beethoven.

322

CHAP.
IX.

Apollo and
the critic
a fable.

The critic's
duty to ad-
mire.

How to Listen to Music

meek and gentle it can be.' This likeness to the
sea, its immensity, its uncertainty, its wild, strong
glory and play, its peace, its solitude, its un-
searchableness, its prevailing sadness, comes more
into our minds with this great and deep master's
works than any other."

That is Beethoven.

Once upon a time it is an ancient
fable a critic picked out all the faults
of a great poet and presented them to
Apollo. The god received the gift
graciously and set a bag of wheat be-
fore the critic with the command that
he separate the chaff from the kernels.
The critic did the work with alacrity,
and turning to Apollo for his reward,
received the chaff. Nothing could
show us more appositely than this
what criticism should not be. A crit-
ic's duty is to separate excellence from
defect, as Dr. Crotch says ; to admire
as well as to find fault. In the propor-
tion that defects are apparent he should
increase his efforts to discover beauties.
Much flows out of this conception of
his duty. Holding it the critic will
bring besides all needful knowledge a
fulness of love into his work. " Where

Musician, Critic, and Public

sympathy is lacking, correct judgment
is also lacking," said Mendelssohn. The
critic should be the mediator between
the musician and the public. For all
new works he should do what the sym-
phonists of the Liszt school attempt to
do by means of programmes ; he should
excite curiosity, arouse interest, and
pave the way to popular comprehen-
sion. But for the old he should not
fail to encourage reverence and admira-
tion. To do both these things he must
know his duty to the past, the present,
and the future, and adjust each duty to
the other. Such adjustment is only
possible if he knows the music of the
past and present, and is quick to per-
ceive the bent and outcome of novel
strivings. He should be catholic in
taste, outspoken in judgment, unaltera-
ble in allegiance to his ideals, unswerv-
able in integrity.

3 2 3

CHAP.
IX.

A mediator
between
musician
and pub lit.

Essential
virtues.

PLATES

PLATE 1

VIOLIN (CLIFFORD SCHMIDT)

PLATE II

VIOLONCELLO (VICTOR HERBERT)

PLATE III

PICCOLO FLUTE-(C. KURTH, JUN.)

PLATE IV

OBOE (JOSEPH ELLER)

PLATE V

ENGLISH HORN (JOSEPH ELLER)

PLATE VI

BASSOON (FEDOR BERNHARDI)

PLATE VII

CLARINET (HENRY KAISER)

PLATE VIII

BASS CLARINET (HENRY KAISER^

PLATE IX

FRENCH HORN (CARL PIEPER)

PLATE X

TROMBONE (J. PFEIFFEN SCHNEIDER)

PLATE XI

BASS TUBA (ANTON REITER)

PLATE XII

.Allegro. J.t.

THE CONDUCTOR'S SCORE

FIRST PAGE, FINALE OF BEETHOVEN'S C MINOR SYMPHONY

INDEX

ABSOLUTS music, 36
Academy of Music, New York,

203

Adagio, in symphony, 133
Addison, 205, 206, 208
Allegro, in symphony, 132
Allemande, 173, 174
Alto clarinet, 104
Alto, male, 260
Amadeo, 241

Ambros, August Wilhelm, 49
Antiphony, 267
Archilochus, 213
Aria, 235
Arioso, 235
Asaph, 115

BACH, C. P. E., 180, 185

Bach, Johann Sebastian, 69, 83,
148, 167, 169, 170, 171, 174, 176,
180, 181, 184, 192, 257, 259, 267,
268, 278, 281, 282, 283, 286, 287,
289 ; his music, 281 et seq. ; his
technique as player, 180, 181,
184 ; his choirs, 257, 259 ; com-
pared with Palestrina, 378 ;
1 Magnificat," 283; Mass in
B minor, 283 ; Chromatic Fan-
tasia and Fugue, 171 ; Suites,
174. 176 ; " St Matthew Pas-
sion," 267, 278, 282, 286, 289 ;

Motet, "Sing ye to the Lord,"
268 ; " St. John Passion," 286

Balancement, 170

Balfe, 223

Ballade, 192

Ballet music, 152

Balletto, 173

Bass clarinet, 104

Bass trumpet, 81, 82

Basset horn, 82

Bassoon, 74, 82, 99, 101 et seq.

Bastardella, La, 239

Bayreuth Festival orchestra, 81,
82

Bcbung, 169, 170

Beethoven, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,

33- 34, 35. 44, 46, 47. 49- 53, 60.
62, 63, 70, 92, 94, loi, 102, 103,
106, 113, 120, 125, 131, 132, 133,
136, 137, 138, 140, 141, 146, 147,
151, 167, 182, 184, 186, 187, 193,
195. 196. 203, 208, 232, 292, 321,
322 ; likenesses in his melodies,
33. 34 ; unity in his works, 27,
28, 29 ; his chamber music, 47 ;
his sonatas, 182 ; his democ-
racy, 46 ; not always idiomat-
ic, I 93 ' his pianoforte, 195 ;
his pedal effects, 196; missal
compositions, 292, 294; his
overtures, 147; his free fan-

35 2

Index

tasias, 131 ; his technique as a
player, 186; " Eroica " sym-
phony, 100, 132, 136; Fifth
symphony, 28, 29, 30, 31, 92,
103, 120, 125, 133 ; " Pastoral"
symphony, 44, 49, 53, 62, 63,
94, 102, 132, 140, 141 ; Seventh
symphony, 31, 32, 132, 133;
Eighth symphony, 113; Ninth
symphony, 33, 34, 35, 94, 133,
136, 138, 305 ; Sonata, op. 10,
No. 3, 321 ; Sonata, op. 31,
No. 2, 29 ; Sonata ' ' Appassi-
onata," 29, 30, 31 ; Pianoforte
concerto in G, 31 ; Pianoforte
concerto in E-flat, 146 ; Violin
concerto, 146; " Becalmed at
Sea," 60 ; " Fidelio," 203, 208,
232 ; Mass in D, 60, 292, 294 ;
Serenade, op. 8, 151

Bell chime, 74

Bellini, 203, 204, 242, 245 ; " La
Sonnambula," 204, 245 ; " Nor-
ma," 242

Benedetti, 242

Berlin Singakademie, 262

Berlioz, 49, 80, 87, 89, 90, 94, 100,
102, 104, 113. 137, 138, 139.
294, 295 ; " L'idee fixe" 137 ;
" Symphonic Fantastique,"
137; "Romeo and Juliet," 90,
94, 139; Requiem, 113, 294,

295

Bizet, " Carmen," 238, ^42
Boileau, 206
Bosio, 241
Boston Symphony Orchestra, 81,

82, 108

Bottesini, 94
Bourre'e, 173
Brahm's * 4 Academic overture,"

101

Branle, 173
Brass instruments, 74, 104 tt

seg.

Brignoli, 209, 242
Broadwood's pianoforte, 195
Brown, Dr. John, 321
Bully Bottom in music, 61
Bunner, H. C., 136
Burns's " Ye flowery banks," 175

CACCINI, " Eurydice," 234

Cadences, 23

Cadenzas, 145

Calve, Emma, 242, 247

Calvin and music, 275

Campanini, 242

Cantatas, 290

Cat's mew in music, 52

Catalani, 245, 246

Chaconne, 153

Chamber music, 36, 44 et seq. t
144

Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
8 1, 82, 108

Choirs, 253 et seg.\ size of, 257 et
seq^ 264, 271 ; men's, 255, 260;
boys', 261 ; women's, 261 ;
mixed, 262, 264 ; division of,
260, 266 ; growth of, in Ger-
many, 262 ; history of, in Amer-
ica, 263; in Cincinnati, 264;
contralto voices in, 270

Choirs, orchestral, 74

Chopin, 167, 1 88, 190, 191, 192,

Index

353

196 ; hfs romanticism, 188 ;
Preludes, 190; fitudes, 191;
Nocturnes, 191 ; Ballades, 192 ;
Polonaises, 192 ; Mazurkas,
192 ; his pedal effects, 196

Choral music, 253 et seq.\ anti-
phonal, 267 ; mediaeval, 274;
Calvin on, 275 ; Luther's influ-
ence on, 276; congregational,
277 ; secular tunes in, 276, 277 ;
Romanticism, influence on,
277 ; preponderance in orato-
rio, 289 ; dramatic and descrip-
tive, 289

Chorley, H. F. , on Jenny Lind's
singing, 243

Church cantatas, 284

Cicero, 309

Cincinnati, choirs in, 264

Cinti-Damoreau, 241

Clarinet, 47, 74, 78, 82, 103 etseq.,

IS*

Classical concerts, 122 et seq.
Classical music, 36, 64, 122 etseq.
Clavichord, 168, 181
Clavier, 171, 173
Clementi, 185, 195
Cock, song of the, 51, 53, 54
Coleridge, n, 144
Coletti, 242
Comic opera, 224
Composers, how they hear music,

40

Concerto, 138, 144 et seq.
Conductor, 114 et seq.
Content of music, 36 et seq.
Contra-bass trombone, 81, 82
Contra-bass tuba, 81, 82

Co-ordination of tones, 17

Coranto, Corrente, 173, 176

Cornelius, " Barbier von Bag-
dad," 236

Cornet, 73, 82, 108

Corno di bassetto, 81, 82

Corsi, 242

Couperin, 168

Courante, 173, 176

Covent Garden Theatre, London,
224, 226

Cowen, " Welsh " and " Scandi-
navian " symphonies, 132

Cracovienne, 193

Creole tune analyzed, 23, 24

Critics and criticism, 13, 297 et
seq.

Crotch, Dr., 322

Cuckoo, 51, 52, 53

Cymbals, 74, 82

Czardas, 201

Czerny, 186

DACTYLIC metre, 31
Dance, the ancient, 43, 212
Dannreuther, Edward, 129, 144,

187
Depth, musical delineation of,

59,6o

De Reszke, Edouard, 248
De Reszke, Jean, 247
Descriptive music, 51 et seq.
Design and form, 16
De Stael, Madame, 210
D'Israeli, 315
Distance, musical delineation of,

60
Dithyramb, aia, 213

354

Index

''Divisions," 265

Doles, Cantor, 292

Donizetti, 203, 204, 242; "Lu-
cia," 203, 204

Double-bass, 74, 78, 82, 94

Double-bassoon, 103

Dragonetti, 94

Dramatic ballads, 290

Dramatic orchestras, 81, 82

Dramma per musica, 227, 249

Drummers, 113

Drums, 73, 74, 82, no et seq.

Duality of music, 15

" Dump" and Dumka, 151

Durchfiihrung, 131

DvoMk, symphonies, " From
the New World," 132, 138 ; in
G major, 136

EAMES, EMMA, 247
Edwards, G. Sutherland, 12
Elements of music, 15, 19
Emotionality in music, 43
English horn, 82, 99, 100
English opera, 223
Ernst's violin, 320
Esterhazy, Prince, 46
Euler, acoustician, 317
Expression, words of, 43

FAMILIAR music best liked, 21

Fancy, 15, 16, 58

Farinelli, 240

Fasch.C. F.,262

Feelings, their relation to music,

38 et seq. , 215, 216
Ferri, 239, 240
Finale, symphonic, 135

First movement in symphony,
131

Flageolet tones, 89

Florentine inventors of the op-
era, 217, 227, 234, 249

Flute, 73, 74, 78, 82, 95 et seq.

Form, 16, 17, 22, 35

Formes, 242, 248

Frederick the Great, 263

Free Fantasia, 131

French horn, 47, 106 et seq.

Frezzolini, 242

Friss, 201

Frogs, musical delineation of,
58, 62

"GALLINA ET GALLO," 53

Gavotte, 173, 179

German opera, 226

Gerster, Etelka, 242, 245

Gesture, 43

Gigue, 173, 174, 178

Gilbert, W. S., 208, 224

Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas,
224

Glockenspiel, no

Gluck, 84, 148, 153, 202, 203, 238 ;
his dancers, 153 ; his orches-
tra, 238; "Alceste," 148;
" Iphigenie en Aulide," 153;
"Orfeo," 202, 203

Goethe, 34, 140, 223

Goldmark, " Sakuntala " over-
ture, 149

Gong, no

Gossec, Requiem, 293

Gounod, " Faust," 209, 224, 238,
246

Index

355

Grand Optra, 223, 224

Greek Tragedy, 211 et seq.

Grisi, 241, 242

Grosse Oper, 224

Grove, Sir George, 33, 63, 141,

187
Gypsy music, 198 et seq.

HALLE, Lady, 320

Hamburg, opera in, 206, 207

Handel, 58, 60, 62, 83, 102, 126,
148, 174, 177, 178, 181, 182, 184,
256, 257, 258, 259, 265, 272 ; his
orchestra, 84 ; his suites, 174 ;
his overtures, 148 ; his tech-
nique as a player, 181, 182, 184 ;
his choirs, 257 ; Commemo-
ration, 258 ; his tutti, 258 ;
" Messiah," 60, 126, 256, 257,
265, 272; "Saul," 102; " Al-
mira," 177; " Rinaldo," 178;
" Israel in Egypt," 58, 62, 257,
259, 289; " Lascia ch? to pi~
anga," 178

Hanslick, Dr. Eduard, 203

Harmonics, on violin, 89

Harmony, 19, 21, 22, 218

Harp, 82

Harpsichord, 168, 170

Hauptmann, M. , 41

Hautboy, 99

Haweis, the Rev. Mr., 318 et
seq.

Haydn, 46, 84, 100, 127, 168, 183,
295 ; his manner of composing,
183 ; dramatic effects in his
masses, 295 ; " Seasons," zoo

Hebrew music, 114 ; poetry, 25

Height, musical delineation of,

S9.6o

Heman, 115
Hen, song of, in music, 52, 53,

54

Herbarth, philosopher, 39
Hiller, Ferdinand, 307, 310
Hiller, Johann Adam, 258
Hogarth, Geo., " Memoirs of the

Opera," 210, 245
Horn, 82, 105, 106 et seq., 151
Hungarian music, 198 et seq.
Hymn-tunes, history of, 275

IAMBICS, 175
" Idee fixe" Berlioz's, 137
Identification of themes, 35
Idiomatic pianoforte music, 193,

194

Idioms, musical, 44, 51, 55
Imagination, 15, 16, 58
Imitation of natural sounds, 51
Individual attitude of man tow-
ard music, 37
Instrumental musicians, former

legal status of, 83
Instrumentation, 71 etseq f \ in the

mass, 293 et seq.
Intelligent hearing, 16, 18, 37
Intermediary necessary, 20
Intermezzi, 221

Interrelation of musical ele-
ments, 22

JANIZARY music, 97
Jean Paul, 67, 189, 190
Jeduthun, 115

35 6

Index

Jig. 179
Judgment, 311

KALIDASA, 149
Kettle-drums, in et seq.
Key relationship, 26, 129
Kinds of music, 36 et seq*
Kirchencantatett) 284
Krakowiak, 193
Kullak, 184

LABLACHE, 248

La Grange, 241, 245

Lamb, Charles, 10

Language of tones, 42, 43

Lassu, 201

Laws, musical, mutability of, 69

Lehmann, Lilli, 233, 244, 247

Lenz, 33

Leoncavallo, 228

Lind, Jenny, 241, 243

Liszt, 132, 140, 142, 143, 167, 168,
193, 197, 198, 228 ; his music,
168, 193, 197 ; his transcrip-
tions, 167 ; his rhapsodies, 167,
198 ; his symphonic poems,
142; "Faust" symphony, 132,
140 ; Concerto in E-flat, 143 ;
" St Elizabeth," 288

Literary blunders concerning
music, 9, 10, ii, 12

Local color, 152, 153

London opera, 206, 207, 226

Louis XIV., 179

Lucca, Pauline, 242, 246, 247

Lully, his overtures, 148 ; min-
uet, 179; u Atys," 206

Luther, Martin, 276

Lyric drama, 231, 234, 237, 251

MADRIGAL, 274

Magyar music, 198 et seq.

Major mode, 57

Male alto, 260

Male chorus, 255, 260

Malibran, 241

Mannergesang, 255, 260

Marie Antoinette, 153

Mario, 242, 247, 271

Marschner, "Hans Heiling,"
225; ''Templer und Jiidin,"
225 ; " Vampyr," 225 ; his op-
eras, 248

Mascagni, 228

Mass, the, 290 et seq.

Massenet, " Le Cid," 152

Materials of music, 16

Materna, Amalia, 247

Matthews, Brander, n

Mazurka, 192

Melba, Nellie, 204, 238, 245, 247,
271

Melody, 19, 21, 22, 24

Memory, 19, 21, 73

Mendelssohn, 41, 42, 49, 59, 61,
67, 102, 1:09, 132, 139, 140, 149,
168, 243, 278, 288, 289, 322; on
the content of music, 41. 42 ;
his Romanticism, 67 ; on the
use of the trombones, 109 ;
opinion of Jenny Lind, 243 ;
" Songs without Words," 41 ;
" Hebrides " overture, 59, 149 ;
' ' Midsummer Night's Dream, "
61, 102 ; " Scotch " symphony,

Index

357

132, 139 ; u Italian " symphony,
132 ; " Hymn of Praise," 140 ;
"St. Paul," 278; "Elijah,"
288, 289

Mersenne, " Harmonic univer-
selle," 175, 176

Metropolitan Opera House, New
York, 203, 224, 226, 244

Meyerbeer, 89, 102, 203, 204, 208,
242, 243, 244; "L'Africaine,"
89; "Robert le Diable," 102,
208, 244; "Huguenots," 204;
" L'Etoile du Nord," 243

Military bands, 123

Minor mode, 57

Minuet, 134, 151, 173, 179

Mirabeau, 293

Model, none in nature for music,
8, 180

Monteverde, " Orfeo," 87

Moscheles, on Jenny Lind's sing-
ing, 243

Motet, 283

Motives, 22, 24

Mozart, 84, 109, 132, 145, 151,
168, 183, 184, 195, 202, 203, 221,
224, 228, 230. 238, 244, 265, 292 ;
his pianoforte technique, 184 ;
on Doles' s mass, 292 ; his or-
chestra, 238 ; his edition of
Handel's " Messiah," 265 ; on
cadenzas, 145 ; his pianoforte,
195 ; his serenades, 151 ; " Don
Giovanni," 109, 202, 221, 222,
228, 230 ; " Magic Flute," 203 ;
G-minor symphony, 132 ; " Fi-
garo," 202, 228

Musica parlante, 234

Musical instruction, deficiencies

in, 9

Musician, Critic, and Public, 297
Musikdrama^ 227, 238, 249

NERI, FILIPPO, 288
Nevada, Emma, 204
Newspaper, the modern, 297, 298,

313

New York Opera, 206, 226, 241
Niecks, Frederick, 192
Niemann, Albert, 233
Nightingale, in music, 52
Nilsson, Christine, 242, 246, 247
Nordica, Lillian, 247
Norman-Neruda, Madame, 320
Notes not music, 20
Nottebohm, " Beethoveniana,"

63

OBOE, 47, 74, 78, 82, 84, 98 et seq.

Opera, descriptive music in, 61 ;
history of, 202 et seq. ; language
of, 205 ; polyglot performances
of, 207 et seq. their texts per-
verted, 207 et seq. ; words of,
209, 210 ; elements in, 214 ; in-
vention of, 216 et seq. \ varie-
ties of, 220 et seq. ; comic ele-
ments in, 221 ; action and
incident in, 236 ; singing in,
239 ; singers compared, 241 et
seq.

Opfra bouffe, 220, 221, 225

Opera buff a, 220

Op6ra comique, 223

Optra, Grand, 223

Opera in musica, 228

358

Index

Opera semiseria, 221

Opera seria, 220

Opus, 132

Oratorio, 256, 287 et seq.

Orchestra, 71 et seq.

Ostrander, Dr. Lucas, 278

" Ouida," 12

Overture, 147 et seq. t 174

PADEREWSKI, his recitals, 154
et seq. ; his Romanticism, 167 ;
" Krakowiak," 193

Painful, the, not fit subject for
music, 50

Palestrina and Bach, 278 et seq. ;
his music, 279 et seq. ; " Stabat
Mater," 279, 280 ; " Imprope-
ria," 280 ; " Missa Papae Mar-
celli," 280

Pandean pipes, 98

Pantomime, 43

Parallelism, 25

Passepied, 173

" Passions," 284 et seq.

Patti, Adelina, 203, 204, 238, 242,

245. 247

Pedals, pianoforte, 195, 196
Pedants, 13, 315
Percussion instruments, no et

seq.

Peri, " Eurydice," 234
Periods, musical, 22, 24
Perkins, C. .,263
Pfund, his drums, 112
Philharmonic Society of New

York, 76, 77, 81, 82
Phrases, musical, 22, 24
Physical effects of music, 38

Pianoforte, history and descrip-
tion of, 154 et seq. \ its music,
154 et seq. , 166 et seq. ; concer-
tos, 144 ; trios, 147

Piccolo flute, 85, 97

Piccolomini, 242, 245

Pictures in music, 40

Pi/a, Handel's, 126

Pizzicato, 88, 91

Plancon, 248

Polonaise, 192

Polyphony and feelings, 39

Popular concerts, 122

Porpora, 209

" Pov piti Momzelle Zizi," 23

Preludes, 148, 174

Programme music, 36, 44, 48 et
seq. t 64, 142

Puccini, 228

QUAIL, call of, in music, 51, 54

Quartet, 147

Quilled instruments, 170

Quinault, " Atys," 206

Quintet, 147

Quintillian, 309

RAFF, 49, 96, 132; " Lenore "
symphony, 96, 132 ; " Im
Walde " symphony, 132

Rameau, 168

Recitative, 219, 220, 228 et seq.

Reed instruments, 98 et seq.

Reformation, its influence on
music, 275, 278, 280

Refrain, 25

Register of the orchestra, 85

Repetition, 22, 25

Index

3*9

Rhapsodists among writers, 13,

315 et seq.

Rhythm, 19, ax, 26, 160
" Ridendo castigat mores," 225
Rinuccini, " Eurydice," 234
Romantic music, 36, 64 et seq.^

71, 277

Romantic opera, 225
Ronconi, 242
Rondeau and Rondo, 135
Rossini, 147, 228, 242 ; his over-
tures, 147; "II Barbiere,"
28 ; " William Tell," 93, 100
Rubinstein, 59, 152, 167, 168,
287 ; his historical recitals,
167 ; his sacred operas, 287 ;
'* Ocean " symphony, 59 ;
" Feramors," 152
Ruskin, John, 302
Russian composers, 134

SACRED OPERAS, 287

Saint-Saens, " Danse Macabre,"
101, in ; symphony in C mi-
nor, 141 ; " Samson and Deli-
lah," 288

Salvi, 242

Sarabande, 173, 174, 177

S ass are Hi, 240

Scarlatti, D. , 167, 172, 182 ; his
technique, 172; "Capriccio"
and " Pastorale," 172

Scheffer, Ary, 246

Scherzo, 133, 179

Schroder-Devrient, 232

Schubert, 168

Schumann, 49, 64, 132, 133, 139,
140, 141, 167, 188, 189, 190, 196,

254, 308, 310 ; his Romanticism,
188 ; and Jean Paul, 189 ; his
pedal effects, 196 ; on popular
judgment, 308, 310 ; symphony
in C, 132 ; symphony in D mi-
nor, 139 ; symphony in B-flat,
140; "Rhenish" symphony,
140, 141; "Carnaval," 189,
190; " Papillons," 189, 190;
' ' Kreisleriana, ' ' 190 ; ' ' Phan-
tasiestucke," 190

Score, 120

" Scotch snap," 52, 200

Second movement in symphony,

133

Seidl, Anton, 77

Sembrich, Marcella, 242, 245

Senesino, 239, 240

Sense-perception, 18

Serenade, 149 et seq.

Shaftesbury, Lord, 311

Shakespeare, his dances, 153,
179 ; his dramas, 202 ; a Ro-
manticist, 221 ; " Two Gentle-
men of Verona," 150; Queen
Mab, 90

Singing, physiology of, 215, 218 ;
operatic, 239 ; choral, 268

Singing Societies, 253 et seq.

Singspiel, 223

Smith, F. Hopkinson, ix

Sonata da Camera, 173

Sonata, 127, 182, 183

Sonata form, 127 et seq.

Sontag, 941. 244. 24S, 246

Sordino, 90

Space, music has no place in, 59

Speech and music, 43

360

Index

Spencer, Herbert, 39, 43, 216,

218, 230
Spinet, 168, 170
Spohr, " Jessonda," 225
Stainer, Dr. , 39, 316
Stein, pianoforte maker, 196
Stilo rappresentativo, 234
Stories, in music, 40
Strings, orchestral, 74, 82, 86 et

seq. t 102

Sucher, Rosa, 247
Suite, 129, 152, 173 et seq.
Symphonic poem, 142
Symphonic prologue, 148
Symphony, 124 et seq., 183
Syrinx, 98

TALENT in listening, 4

Tambourine, no

Tappert, " Zooplastik in T5-

nen," 51
Taste, 311

Technique, 163 ft seq.
Tennyson, 9
Terminology, musical, 8
Theatre naticnale de FOpera-

Comique, 223
Thespis, 212
Thomas, " Mignon," 223
Tibia, 98
Titiens, 242
Tonal language, 42, 43
Tones, co-ordination of, 17
Touch, 163 et seq.
Tragedia per musita, 227
Tremolo, 91

Trench, Archbishop, 65, 66
Triangle, 74, no

Trio, 134

Triolet, 136

Trombone, 82, 105, 106, 109 et
seq.

Trumpet, 105, 108

Tschaikowsky, 88, 132; "Sym-
phonic Pathe"tique," 132

Tuba, 82, 85, 106, 108

" Turkish " music, 97

Tympani, 82, in et seq.

UGLY, the, not fit for music, 50
United States, first to have am-
ateur singing societies, 257,
262; spread of choral music
in, 263
Unity in the symphony, 27, 137

VAUDBVILLBS, 234

Verdi, 152, 203, 210, 228, 236,
238, 242, 243; "Aida," 152,^
228, 238 ; " II Trovatore," 210,"
243; "Otello," 228, 238;
" Falstaff," 228, 236 ; Requiem,
290

Vestris, 153

Vibrato, 90

Vile, the, unfit for music, 50

Viola, 74, 77. 82, 92, 93

Viole da. braccio, 93

Viole da gamba^ 93

Violin, 73,74. 77, 82, %6 et seq.,
144, 162

Violin concertos, 145

Violoncello, 74. 77, 82. 9*. 93- 94

Virginal, 168, 170

Vocal music, 61, 215

Vorspiel, 148

Index

361

WAGNER, 41, 79, 80, 81, 88, 89,
94, in, 205, 206, 219, 226, 227,
232, 235, 237, 238, 244, 248, 249,
250, 251, 303, 305, 314 ; on the
content of music, 41 ; his in-
strumentation, 80, in ; his
dramas, 219, 226, 227, 248 ;
Musikdrama, 227, 249; his di-
alogue, 235 ; his orchestra, 238,
250 ; his operas, 248 ; his theo-
ries, 249 ; endless melody, 250 ;
typical phrases, 250 ; " lead-
ing motives," 250 ; popularity
of his music, 303 ; on criticism,
314; " Flying Dutchman," 248;
" Tannhauser," 248 ; " Lohen-
grin,'' 79, 88, 235, 248; "Die
Meistersinger," 249; " Tristan
und Isolde," 87, 237, 249;
" Rheingold," 237 ; " Die Wal-
kare," 94, 237 ; " Siegfried,"
37. 344 I " Die Gotterdamme-

rung," 237 ; " Ring of the
Nibelung," 249, 251, 305;
" Parsifal," 249

Waldhorn, 107

Wallace, W. V. , 223

Walter, Jacob, 53

Water, musical delineation of,

58,59

Weber, 67, 96, 244, 248 ; his Ro-
manticism, 67; "Der Freis-
chiitz," 96, 225; " Oberon,"
225; " Euryanthe," 225

Weitzmann, " Geschichte des
Clavierspiels, " 201

Welsh choirs, 255

Wood-wind instruments, 74, 77,
78,95

XYLOPHONE, in
YSAYE, on Cadenzas, 146

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